


Reincarnation

by WingedLadyColette



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Founding of Konoha, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-23
Updated: 2017-09-15
Packaged: 2018-03-14 16:24:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 134,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3417470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WingedLadyColette/pseuds/WingedLadyColette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sakura awakens in the time of the founding of the Hidden Leaf, unknowing how she got there or how to get home, the only clue she has other than missing memories is visions of the Rabbit Goddess, Kaguya.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Return Home

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note: Yes, I know, another story. But I can't help myself. I really wanted to write this before it slipped my mind. I got the idea from a blog I read a while ago. If I find it again, I'll post it. It was kind of interesting. But anyway, let me know what you think. Enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing!
> 
> Warnings: Nothing much, maybe language.
> 
> Word Count: 5,063

How did I get here?

That was Sakura's first thought as she opened her eyes to see the bright blue sky above her. In the distance she can hear the birds chirping and the sound of waves crashing against a bank. Her entire body feels heavy and her head is pounding painfully. The heat of the sun beats down on her, warming the revealed skin that her tattered regulation chunin garbs no longer covers. Sakura watches as a flock of birds fly over her, a particularly big one circles a bit before flying off.

That's right, Sakura thinks, sucking in a pained breath, I ain't dead yet.

Sakura slowly pushes herself up, feeling like her body is being held down by lead. It's then that she realizes that she is aching painfully all over the place. Sakura lifts her hand to push her stiff pink hair out of her eyes. Just running her fingers through the thick pink locks, makes her cringe in disgust. She has no idea how long she's been laying there, but it has been too long. And it feels like Sakura hasn't bathed in even longer than that, much to her chargin. And her hair tie is gone, she notes. Not that it matters all that much.

The last thing Sakura remembers is...

Heat. Fire. The dead walking. So many wounded. War. Battle cries. The Ten Tailed demon. Madara Uchiha. The four previous Hokages, living. Fighting along side them. Sasuke. The Sage of Six Paths. Obito Uchiha's death. The other nine demons getting sucked up into a statue. A dead Goddess. The Sharingan. Sasuke's. Obito's. Kakashi's. Madara's. Recognition in those black and red eyes. A look of surprise. The parting of lips-

Sakura groans, rubbing her forehead to try and ease the pain in her head. She can't really recall the events leading up to this moment, just fragments. Flashes of images and sounds that seem slightly out of place and nothing too concrete. Sakura was in war, she was with Sasuke and Naruto, getting ready to try and save the world. And then things started to go down hill and her memory starts to get fuzzy.

Sakura takes a moment to survey the area. She's by a river bank just a few feet from a thick forest. Looking as far as she can one way and then the other, she can tell that the river goes as far as she can see. The river is moving slowly and the edges of Sakura's feet are in the clear, sparkling blue water. Her clothes are stiff and feel crusty. Sakura can only assume that she was somehow taken down river and finally managed to wash up shore. She must have been barely conscious when she pulled herself out because Sakura has no memory of it.

Come to think of it, was she originally anywhere near a river? Oh, for the life of Sakura, she can't seem to recall. One moment she was in war, fighting alongside her friends and the Shinobi of the Alliance for their lives, and the next, she is waking up at a river bank. Confused and hurt. And the only the bright side is that she's been out long enough for her chakra to have replenished. She immediately begins to check herself for wounds and heals all the ones she comes across until all she has to do is send healing chakra to her head to ease the headache.

Once that's done, Sakura pulls herself to her feet and takes a moment to stretch out her senses to see if there is anything dangerous in the area. After a full minute of sensing nothing, Sakura finally, slowly begins to peal the clothes from her body.

First to go is her tattered green chunin vest that's no use anymore. She pulls out all of the things in the remaining pockets and activates the destruction seal on the collar and the vest burns away. She pulls everything from her medical pouch and her kunai holder, taking stock of everything in it, before adding the things from her vest to the list and making it organized and easily accessible should she suddenly need anything. Then she checks on the rest of her clothes.

Her dark blue, long sleeve, chunin shirt is missing the left sleeve all the way up to her shoulder. The right sleeve is unevenly ripped up to her elbow. The remaining bit of the sleeve has slight discoloration from being elbow deep in the bodies of other human beings, trying to save their lives. As for her dark blue chunin pants, those are stained with mud and specks of blood, and stiff.

Sakura pauses again, feeling out with her senses for danger. After another minute of nothing, she quickly removes her shirt, making quick work on ripping off the rest of the sleeve on her right arm, feeling the heat from the sun beating down on her back. She pulls off the now useless wrapping that tied up the bottom of her pants and pulled off her shoes. Next she removes her pants and makes quick work of removing the crumpled bottoms so it would be about to the middle of her calves.

After that, she puts the shreds of clothes into her bag to use as a make-shift wrapping should she need it. Then she works on cleaning her clothes, first her pants, then her shirt. She tries to scrub the stains away, annoyed that there isn't any sort of soap that can be used to clean her or her clothes.

Something leaves Sakura on edge. She has to quickly get cleaned up and head back to the village and figure out what's going on. She can't hear any sounds of battle and no one has come looking for her, Sakura can only assume that she's really far from the battlefront, if there still is a battlefront. They never covered this before going to war. If one passes out fighting the dead goddess and wakes up miles away from the battlefield, or at least assumed miles away, what do they do then? Try and return to the front line? Go home and get information, restock, then head back?

Sakura just didn't know.

She lays her clothes out to dry on a nearby large, flat rock and quickly strips her underwear and bra before flying into the water, hating feeling so exposed. She quickly rubs her skin, cleaning any and all remaining dirt, blood and sweat, trying to ignore the sudden shock of the cold water hitting her bare flesh. She takes a deep breath and sinks beneath the surface of the slow moving river, running her hands through her hair, trying to clean it as much as she can without any soap. She reemerges and shivers heavily, making her way out of the water back over to her undergarments.

Trembling, she stands beneath the high noon sun, letting the rays start to warm her body. She finally pulls on her underwear and bra, sitting down on the flat rock her clothes are on, silently willing them to dry quickly. Sakura picks up her shirt and starts waving it around, trying to dry it quicker. She does this until her arms hurt before she finally gives up and pulls on the wet shirt on and then the pants, struggling to pull them on. She almost falls back into the water but manages to keep herself steady.

Not the ideal situation, but it's going to have to do, Sakura just hopes that it's warm enough that she doesn't catch a cold from this. Or that the water isn't somehow infected with something.

Sakura straps her weapons back on and looks back up at the sky, trying to figure out which way to the Leaf. She just hopes that she isn't beyond the village. Well, she'll know if she hits Ame. Sakura is about to leave when she turns her attention up river, wondering if maybe it was smarter to just return the way she came. Try and find the front lines again. If she went the Hidden Leaf, then would she be considered AWOL? Even if she returned to the front line as soon as she could? Kami, she wished they covered this.

No, Sakura wasn't going to risk it. She'll go and see how far this takes her. Maybe she can find the front line, or at least a village that she can use to orient herself and find out her next move.

Sakura sighs, turning to head up stream when she immediately feels the hairs on her neck stand on end. She freezes, expanding her senses to find the source of the danger when she feels the presence at her left flank. Sakura spins around just in time to avoid three kunai hitting the soft sand where she was standing just seconds before.

Green eyes flash up toward the woods to see two shinobi standing there, decked out in battle armor. Sakura falls into a defensive crouch, opening her mouth to call out that she's not the enemy, but it's at that most inconvenient moment that Sakura realizes that her throat is completely dry. She's been so wrapped up in making sure that she cleaned herself up and forgot to take note of her own health. Sure, her injuries were healed up, but she's still dehydrated. Man, she is out of it. Tsunade would probably kick her ass if she found out.

Unfortunately, these guys don't seem all that interested in talking. One of them, sword in hand, jumps toward Sakura, swinging the sword in an arch to smoothly sever her head from her body. Sakura ducks under it just in time, but feels the air brush the back of her neck. With his stomach left open, Sakura pulls back an arm and adds just enough chakra to bruise internally, and thrusts it forward, managing to collide with his stomach. The distinct sound of metal crunching beneath her fist is heard, before he goes flying passed the other guy, deeper into the woods only to stop when his back connects to a tree.

Sakura doesn't have much time to enjoy the small victory because the other guy is on her in moments. She barely has enough time to bend backward to avoid the kunai swipe to her neck. She manages to kick her foot up, balancing back on one hand, and kicks the bottom of his hand, knocking the kunai from his grip. She hears it plop into the water behind her. He hisses in pain but is quick to recover, leg flying out to swipe her foot out from under her.

Sakura falls flat onto her back, groaning a bit in pain, and is slightly winded before she quickly regains herself and rolls out of the way from his foot stomping where her stomach would have been. Sakura quickly rolls to her feet, sending chakra to her hand, performing a medical ninjutsu and jumping at the man. His eyes lock onto the glow of her hand and he ducks out of the way of her strikes, avoiding her hand at all costs. He stumbles back until a stray root snags the back of his foot, making him stumble. Sakura closes her hand into a fist, pulling back the jutsu and just enhancing her strength instead before reaching out with her other hand to grab the top of his chest guard, pulling him closer to punch him in the chest.

He skids across the ground for a few yards, somehow managing to miss all the trees between them before rolling onto his side and curling up, winded.

For a moment, Sakura watches to make sure they're both still alive, before turning away, picking up the three discarded kunai for her own use and heading back up the stream, silently hoping that whoever those guys were get help soon. She has no time to waste, her friends could desperately need her and she's goofing around, getting herself cleaned up and fighting off a couple of idiots, when she should be high tailing it back to the front line.

Yes, now she is starting to think clearly. She stops one more time to drink a few handfuls of water before racing on. Sakura has no idea how long she was running, but eventually she comes to a stop to rest. The heat beats down on her enough to make her work up a sweat and dry her clothes, although those are still uncomfortably stiff.

Sakura leans heavily against a tree trunk, looking around for a moment, not seeing anything to indicate a village or the battlefront. After a moment of debate, Sakura finally crawls up to the top of the tree to get an areal view. Once she get's to the top of the tree, she sees nothing for miles in all directions. It's starting to get late and sun is going to be setting soon. Sakura is completely and utterly lost. She doesn't know how long she's been out cold, how far downriver she went or if she's even heading in the right direction.

For the first time in Sakura's very short life, she is completely and utterly helpless and alone. She's in a strange area with strange shinobi that don't seem to care about the Alliance (they were probably Ronin or rogues, she'll have to remember to check for headbands if she runs into any more) and she has no idea how to begin about going back to the warfront because she can't even find it.

There doesn't appear to be a village for miles, which is lovely and completely Sakura's luck, and what's worse is she's out at night on her own. She has to avoid both shinobi and bandits and/or highway men, and the predators of the night. Giant snakes and large white tigers and anything else that could swallow a grown man whole without a moments hesitation. That and there has to be wolves out here somewhere. Sakura can just feel it and she doesn't want to deal with them either, surprisingly enough.

"Tomorrow," Sakura says aloud to herself. Her voice sounds strange, since she hasn't heard it in a while. "Tomorrow, if I don't find the Alliance, I'll head to the Hidden Leaf. If I have to explain in embarrassing detail to Lady Tsunade about what happened, I will. I just need to get some where familiar. At this point, it's all she can focus on." There was no one there but Sakura, and she knows it's crazy to be talking like there is someone there but it makes her feel better to hear noise. The forest noise just fades into the background too easily.

Sakura jumps down to the branches and, while staying in the forest with the river still in sight, continues to follow it up stream jumping from tree branch to tree branch, being mindful not to step on a weak branch and go plummeting twenty feet to the forest floor. Yeah, because that's exactly what Sakura needs. Fall twenty feet and break her ankle. That would be the perfect end to an overall disappointing story. Sakura shakes her head, clearing her mind so that she can focus on where she's going and forgetting about everything else for now.

 

Sakura has to stop a few hours later. It's getting so dark that it's too hard to see the branches in front of her anymore so she has to stop for her safety, but there is something else that made her stop as well: the large, full moon shining down on them in the sky.

Sakura jumps up to a higher branch to get away from more predators, before lowering herself onto the branch with her back against the trunk of the tree. She tries to get in as comfortable of a position as she can with the rough bark of a tree digging into her back and bottom. She pulls her legs to her chest and wraps her arms around them, pressing her forehead onto her knees, closing her eyes. She can't look at the sky, at the moon, it makes her heart start to pound hard in her chest in a mixture of fear and anxiety.

She almost expects that when she looks up at it, she will see the red moon to signify that Madara's plan had worked. That her life was officially over before she really even got to live it. That she wouldn't be with her friends at the end to face Madara in that one final battle. When being involved in this situation, Sakura always wondered if the war would end while she was back with the medical core from all five of the great nations and hear the news as it spread through the ranks, being one of the last to cheer in victory.

Or if she would be standing there, beside her friends and her team, there to help deliver the final blow. When she arrived alongside Naruto and Sasuke to do battle with them to protect the world. That the three of them - four, when she thought of Kakashi, and six when she thought of Sai and Captain Yamato - would be there together, as a team. And even more, if all their friends were there, if the entire Shinobi Alliance could be there. And maybe they were. Maybe everyone was there, rearing up for the final strike, ready to risk it all on this last move.

And Sakura was not there.

No, she was here, in the ass end of nowhere, wondering how to get back. Wondering how she even got here and if her friends were okay. So much could have gone wrong and they needed Sakura and she wasn't there. For some strange reason to which she still can't remember, she's here, and not where she should be. With her family, battling for the sake of the world and the future.

And it kills Sakura. It yanks on her chest so hard that she can feel the prickle of pain behind her eyelids. A sob wracks her body, making it shake. Sakura forces herself to keep quite, not wanting to attract the attention of any predators in the night. Man, or beast. She forces the pain down as far is it can go in her heart and locks is up tightly, trying to pull herself together.

She has to try and sleep now, so that she can get moving as soon as possible to try and find her way to her friends as soon as she can. If any of her friends die before she has the chance to get there, Sakura will never be able to forgive herself. She already can't forgive herself for Neji's death. Seeing a white Zetsu clone take Neji's form and then her deliver it a royal beat down. It was like a painful premonition.

She killed the clone that looked like her friend and it ultimately took her friend's life away. If she had just been on the battlefield with them, she could have saved Neji. She was strong enough, she's sure of it! She could have, but didn't and now his death weighs heavily on her heart, even to this very moment. Behind her eyelids she could see the dead face of all of her friends and senseis and all the medical staff from all the different nations. Everyone she ever met and loved, dead before her very eyes, laid out before her like some kind of sick joke.

Sakura wanted to weep the night away, but instead forced herself to remain silent, to watch the images of her dead loved ones and silently promise herself that she will make it in time to save them all. But in order to do that, she first must attempt to sleep.

 

Sakura didn't get a wink of sleep that night, much to her chargin. She set out again just before dawn, aching all over the place and feeling horrible. The night had chilled her arms and legs where the skin was exposed. She can tell immediately that while she feels like shit now, she's going to really be in for it tomorrow. She rubs her hands up and down her arms, trying to warm them with the friction. Sakura's stomach growls loudly, something else she ignored yesterday for favor of trying to figure out where she was and how she was going to get back to her friends.

As she ran along side the stream, she kept her eye open for anything edible. At this point she was willing to eat anything. She wanted to cook up a fish and eat that, but that would mean a prolonged stop and she wanted to wait until later on in the day before she did that. It was about an hour later that Sakura finally had to stop and eat, lacking in the energy to keep going.

She waded into the water and in no time, managed to catch a single fish. She quickly killed and at made a fire, feeling like a zombie. Building the fire took a really long time. She was about ready to give up when the sticks finally ignited. It's not often that Sakura really wishes for something when it comes to her abilities as a shinobi, she would rather just work to make up for it, as Tsunade taught her, but it was during this ordeal that she desperately wished that she was capable of using a fire style technique. It would have sped this process along.

Cooking the fish took even longer, which only made Sakura feel like she was going to die at the drop of a hat. But eventually she was able to eat and practically gobbled the fish up. Sakura wasn't much of a fish eater but that fish must have been blessed by Kami because it tasted wonderful. And she ate it in record time without having to worry about being lady-like in front of anyone.

Feeling better with a bit of food in her stomach Sakura was able to continue on, toward the mountains in the distance. Sakura had been so out of it, that she didn't even realize that the river she was following went around a mountain just a few miles in front of her. Did that mean that she was actually close to the Leaf instead? But then what happened? Sakura's head hurt.

Regardless, if she was near the mountains of Konoha, then she was on the opposite side, because she couldn't see the Leaf. She'll just have to climb the mountain, now that she's got more energy and see if she can locate her village and figure out what's going on. With new-found vigor, Sakura races toward the village at top speed. As she draws near Sakura realizes that she is in fact facing the back side of the honorary mountain that the Hokages' faces adorn. She recognizes it. She's lived by this mountain all her life and stared at it for countless hours. It was hers. She was home.

That means, had she followed her first instinct, it would have led her far away from the Hidden Leaf and then she would have been more lost. That's another praise to Kami. Sakura made a mental note to herself to become more direction savvy. One of these days she's not going to be this lucky and she'd rather not tempt fate again.

Sakura quickly scaled the back end of the mountain. If she goes up this way then she'll be closer to the Hokage tower where Lady Tsunade's advisors are. She won't have to do the awkward walk of shame through the entire village with everyone wondering why she was there when she should be with her master and team. This just cuts down on it.

By the time the pink haired girl reaches the top, she's winded and tired and she feels like she hasn't eaten for months. That fish was burned off quickly and it was just her sheer force of will that kept her from just stopping half way up and crying there uselessly for a while. Kami, after this war is over, Sakura is really going to have to take some time to herself and work off the stress that's the size of this mountain on her back. Perhaps that was why it was so hard to climb it?

Sakura is staggering to her feet, making sure not to fall backward off the mountain, because that'll definitely kill her, if not paralyze her for life, before looking up to see a crowd of people. There is a very distinct line down the center parting the two sides. A few near the back stare at her with annoyed expressions on their faces - at first - but after ten whole seconds of staring at her, they looked downright confused.

"Hey!" Sakura says, making some of the people jump and spin around, hands going for their weapons as if they expect an attack. "What are you guys doing up here? You can't be up here," she says, narrowing her eyes. "Who are you people? This isn't your home," she makes note, realizing that she didn't recognize a single one of them. This puts her on edge, she grabs out two kunai from her kunai holder strapped to her leg and holds them out in front of her.

They are going to attack the Hidden Leaf while hardly any shinobi remain? Dirty trick. Sakura scowls, suddenly wishing that she had eaten ten fish as opposed to just one.

"Who are you, boy?" one of the men says, narrowing his dark green eyes. Sakura's eyebrow twitches slightly in annoyance. Was he trying to be cute? Sure, she was filthy and disgusting and certainly smelled like a man, but she was obviously a girl.

Sakura spins her kunai around for a moment, taking note that all eyes followed the motion with deadly accuracy. Up on the mountain with no tree cover to block the wind makes the hairs on her arms, legs and neck stand on end and her entire body shiver at the cold. Even the sweat she had just worked up was already cooling down, making her skin feel tight. Had it always been this cold? In the thick of war, everything always felt blazing hot.

"It doesn't matter who I am, this is my home," Sakura snarls, widening her stance. "If you're thinking about attacking, don't. I'm not in the mood." Sakura's sure she was acting a lot more tough than she was appearing. Every blow of the wind that ruffled the thick hair of the men and the loose fabrics of their battle armor passed through her taking more of her precious body heat with it, making her shiver more. But she refused to back down. Wait, battle armor? Where had she seen that before?

"It's you!" A man to Sakura's left exclaimed.

Sakura glances over at him to note that he was one of the two guys that she fought with when she first woke up. He was the one who Sakura fought second, the one that put up more of the fight.

"Oh," Sakura says in mild surprise. That explains where she's seen the armor before. It's kind of scary at the fact that they had to have somehow passed her at some point and she didn't even know it. That left her both uneasy and annoyed with herself. It was because she was so out of it that she was missing even the smallest of things. She has to focus.

Sakura shakes her head and narrows her eyes. "Are you here to attack my home?" The man that she beat glowers at her, annoyed at being brushed off.

That makes the predominantly male group shake looks.

"What home?" one of the men from the opposite side says, raising a dainty dark brown eyebrow.

That makes a blood vessel bulge in her forehead. "This is my home, asshole and you guys are trespassing." Did he think she was a moron? What home? The huge damn village right behind them, pompous ass. Damn, Sakura really has to get her anger in check. The brown haired man narrows his eyes dangerously, clearly not liking her tone.

"What's going on back there?" Someone from the other side of the group yells.

"State your business now, or leave," Sakura threatens, her patience running thin, glaring back into the brown haired man's black eyes, not willing to back down. This is the last thing she needs. If they've come to attack Konoha, Sakura's going to give them one hell of a time.

"Trespassing? You live here?" A kinder voice says, walking down the separation in the two sides with two other men flanking him. Sakura's eyes turn to the obvious leader of the bunch.

"Yes and you are tres-" her words die in her throat at the sight of Hashirama Senju walking toward her with a worried and slightly depressed expression on his face. Sakura's jaw drops.

"I am sorry," Hashirama says. "I was certain that no one lived here. Have you been here long?"

She didn't know how to answer him, if she thought she could, all that Sakura was currently capable of was staring at the First Hokage with a wide eyes and a loose jaw, mimicking a fish. Open, close, open, close, open; a small, strange noise, then closed again.

Her eyes flicker to the man to Hashirama's right, seeing, but not believing, the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju. And to Hashirama's left, Madara Uchiha.


	2. Awaken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: So there seems to be a bit of buzz for this, so I've got the second chapter done and decided to post. And it's longer because I was so excited, sorry! Thanks for everyone's support for this new story. I love hearing what you've got to say. Let me know what you think! Enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing!
> 
> Warnings: Nothing much, maybe language.
> 
> Word Count: 6,511

The two kunai in Sakura's hand drop to the ground, clanking against the smooth rock of the mountain. When she imagined fighting Madara, she never imagined that she would be alone and probably have to fight through the First and Second to get to him. She was willing to die to protect the ones she loved, along side the ones she loved, not foolishly tempt the God of the Shinobi, his little brother and the demon that is trying to destroy their future. She's willing to die for her future if they have a chance of winning. There is no way in hell Sakura can beat all three of them, including over a dozen of their clansmen from each respective side.

Thinking back to her behavior earlier makes Sakura feel light headed. Yes, that was the Uchiha and the Senju clans, and she wasn't exactly making any friends amongst them. And another point that Sakura should control her anger better and stop being so quick to judge. Sakura was never just like this. There used to be some form of logic behind it. Perhaps it's just the simple fact that she didn't recognize them so close to the village.

But it's not just that, all of these people are living, breathing proof that Sakura isn't home anymore. She must have been involved in some kind of space-time ninjutsu but for the life of her, she can't remember. That's the only reason she would be pushed into the past like this. She certainly wasn't suppose to be here because if Sakura's seeing this all correctly, this is when they are deciding that this is going to be where Sakura's future home is going to be.

And she just told them to go somewhere else. Sakura is so stupid. She brings her hands up to her face, feeling the heat come off of it. Her face must be beat red with embarrassment. Her heart beats hard in her chest, making her entire body throb with it's intensity. Sakura sways slightly from side to side, trying to stay steady on her feet, but if she's embarrassingly honest, it probably looks like she's swallowed half the sake in the world.

"Are you okay?" Hashirama asks, worried.

Sakura lets her hands drop to her side, letting her shoulders droop lowly, feeling exhausted and numb. "Yeah," Sakura sighs, looking up at Hashirama's worried eyes, a crease formed between his eyebrows. "I'm sorry Lord Fir-eh, I mean, Senju-sama, I'm a... uh..." She makes a face, trying to think of an excuse. She cringes when she is forced to say the first thing that comes to her mind. "I'm a pathological liar with delusional tendencies about winning against multiple, stronger opponents. Little dog with a big dog complex, if you will."

There was a moment of silence that follows. Some of the men share looks amongst themselves, mumbling quietly in confusion to one another. One of them, on the Senju side, a man with short, shaggy brown hair and light green eyes, asks, with a look of complete confusion, "What?"

Sakura forces a laugh, reaching up to rub the back of her head, a nervous habit that she's picked up from Naruto years ago, but stops suddenly feeling strange. Before Sakura can even force an internal check up when she becomes light headed and stumbles, forward a step, then backward before catching herself and forcing herself steady. At her swift movement, those with their hands still poised over their weapons jump and start to pull them out a bit before relaxing.

"Whoa!" Hashirama says, quickly taking a few steps forward. "Maybe you should sit down, young one, you seem faint."

"And staggering dangerously close to the edge of the mountain," Tobirama says, giving Hashirama a look. The elder of the two nods briskly when he looks back at his brother, before looking back over at Sakura.

"Why don't you sit for a moment? I can heal you," he says.

"No, I'm okay," Sakura says, then glances behind herself to see that, yes, she was right at the edge and it was quite the mighty terrifying fall. Sakura feels vertigo for a moment. She takes a few safe steps closer to the First Hokage but doesn't come to arms length, warily looking around at the staring men. "I'm sorry, um, you can build here. I was just..." She shakes her head. "Never mind, I'm sorry. Good luck. I'd better go."

"Wait!" Hashirama says, holding a hand out toward her, eyebrows pulled together tightly. "You seem very ill, young one, you should take a moment to rest. Truly. Is your home somewhere nearby?"

Sakura smiles ruefully, unable to keep the sadness and hopelessness from her face. "I thought it was, but I'm wrong. I'm sorry."

"You can't just go wandering around, you're sick!" Hashirama says, eyes wide. "Please, I would not feel good about letting you go in your condition."

"Hashirama," Tobirama says sternly, "if he doesn't want our help then we can not force him."

Hashirama pouts, looking back at the red eyed man through long dark lashes. "I can try," he says softly. "Besides, he's irrational, feverish, even."

Sakura shakes her head, immediately regretting that when is makes her head rattle and feel as thought it's filled with cotton. "Thank you for your concern, Senju-sama," Sakura says roughly, her voice is thick and low, sounding strange even to herself. "But I think I'm..." She makes a face and sends her chakra to do an internal diagnostic check. "I'm..." She stumbles again. "I'm... oh kami," she whispers, eyes widening. How could she have gotten this bad without even noticing?

Her mind immediately lists off her ailments. Fever, dehydration, slight-malnutrition, exhaustion, not enough oxygen getting to the brain, high blood pressure, chakra irregularity. She's sick. Perhaps infection from her wounds and then being washed down a river? Perhaps the wounds were just left open for too long to fester and her own natural body odor was able to cover it up? Or, it could just be as simple as she's over eighty years into the past and caught something that her body hasn't already built an immunity for yet? Sakura didn't know.

"Damn," Sakura curses, sliding down to a knee.

Hashirama steps closer, holding his hands out to show he's unarmed, until he can go down onto one knee to get a better look. "Please, let me help you."

"I don't have much of a choice..." Sakura slurs, her vision getting blurry and blackening around the edges. "I think the fever's going to take me... I can't stop it. Damn it." Sakura lowers from her knee to her hip, trying reign in her chakra but it refuses to obey. This has never happened before. Whatever she caught, it's somehow affecting her chakra.

Hashirama puts a hand to Sakura's forehead before she has the time to protest about being sweaty and gross, but he doesn't seem to mind, sending cool healing chakra into her body, forcing it to start cooling down. Sakura watches with fading vision as his eyes widen in surprise. "Dear Kami, how did you manage to catch Uchiha fever, young one?"

Sakura didn't have time to answer or begin to wonder what Uchiha fever was before she blacks out.

 

Sakura felt as though she was in a barely lucid state for a long time. Most of the time, she could hear voice, feel people touching her. She couldn't make out anything that anyone was saying. She felt so weak and tired for her entire slumber, like she her eyes were closed but she wasn't resting at all. She really felt it, when she finally gained the strength to open her eyes and felt like she was being held down by bricks and had cotton in her brain. But her fever is gone and her chakra system has already begun to regulate again. Thankfully there doesn't appear to be any damage internally, externally or with her chakra system.

"You're finally awake!" A voice says, walking into the room.

Sakura sits up slowly, looking around to see that she is in a relatively plain room made up entirely of wood, she's laying on a bed in the center of the room. If she had to guess, it appears to be an old style walk-in clinic. There is one door leading to the bath and another leading out in the hallway that connects all the rooms for the convenience of the medics.

Sakura turns her attention to the woman walking into the room, she has long dark brown hair and bright green eyes and has to be in her early to mid twenties. She's wearing a thin powder blue yukata and her long brown hair is pulled back at the nape of her neck with a white ribbon, letting it hang over her left shoulder. Sakura can feel the heat from the outside filtering in from the open door and the two windows flanking it.

"How are you feeling?" the woman asks, closing the door behind her. "I'm Salma, by the way. We didn't get your name or anything before you passed out. You've been out for about two days now. You must be hungry."

As soon as the words left Salma's mouth, Sakura's stomach growls loudly. She blushes deeply in embarrassment.

Salma laughs, her large green eyes practically twinkling at the action. "I'll get you something to eat," she says, turning back toward the door only to pause and stare back at Sakura. "Tobirama-sama wanted us to change and bathe you, but Hashirama-sama insisted that wherever you come from, that might be a sign of disrespect and he didn't want to create an incident. So, if you feel strong enough, you can bathe is you want, I'll get some clothes and food for you for when you finish."

Sakura nods her thanks, pushing the thin covers off of herself and shakily climbs to her feet and heading into the bath, closing the door behind her. She fills the tub with warm water, thankful for indoor pluming. She peals the dingy, dirty clothes from her body, making a mental note to have those burned before the day's end. As the water fills the tub, Sakura looks around at the bath soaps and the shampoo, feeling like she is in heaven.

Sakura lowers herself onto the small stool. She fills up the small bucket with warm water and pours it over her body, immediately cringing at the sight of the grungy water taking the dirt and grime from her body. She quickly starts to clean herself, starting with her body, making sure to get herself squeaky clean, before pouring a glob of shampoo into her hand and rubbing it into her hair. She closes her eyes and scrubs it into her hair thoroughly. She refills the bucket and turns the water off in the tub before sitting back onto the stool and pouring the water over her head. She repeats this process a few times before she runs a hand through her hair to make sure all the suds are out before standing up and stepping into the tub.

Sakura lets out a long sigh of relief before relaxing. She lounges in the tub for a few minutes, enjoying the strawberry scent of the water before sinking beneath the water, holding her breath. She listens to the muffled noises under the water for a couple of seconds before finally pulling back up to the surface and laying her head against the back of the tub, pushing her hair out of her eyes.

After another low rumble from her belly, Sakura finally pulls herself out of the water and uncorks the water, listening to it drain from the tub. Sakura grabs a thin blue and white cloth bathrobe from off the wall and wraps it tightly around herself. She opens the door to see Salma laying a steaming bowl of soup down next to the bed, dark summer yukata, similar blue to her chunin garbs, in her arms. But once again, there was something strange about them.

"Salma?" Sakura says, stepping into the room. "Are those male clothes?"

"Yes," Salma says, straightening up and turning to Sakura only to stop and blink rapidly. "Oh my goodness," she says, bringing a hand to her mouth, "you're a girl!"

Sakura blanches at her words. "Yes, I am. You honestly couldn't tell?" How hard was it to tell that she was a girl? Pink hair? Short stature? Boobs? None of this was an immediate indicator to any of them that she was a girl? Sakura held great respect fro the founders of her village and for their clans, but was the people of this era honestly stupid?

"No," Salma blushes. "I'm so sorry. You...well..." she trails off, looking around uncomfortably.

"What? I, what? I mean, I know I wasn't the most cleanly person before this - which by the way, thank you for letting me bathe, I feel better - but I mean, come on!" She gestures toward herself. "I look like a girl. And I sound like one too."

"Your voice a bit..." Salma says, still embarrassed. "But while you were sick, it was lower and more raspy and... well, you were dressed as a man and spoke with a more... masculine tone..."

"It's because of my clothes and the fact that I cursed that made me appeal to them as a man?" Sakura says in disbelief before she slaps her forehead hard with the heel of her hand. "I give up."

"I'll get you women's clothes right away!" Salma says, no longer embarrassed now that Sakura isn't angry, more annoyed, and tries to hold back her amusement. "I'll be right back."

Sakura growls under her breath and walks over to the bed, sitting down on the floor next to it, refusing to sit on it since she's been stinking it up for the past two days, mulling over how people could honestly be so closed minded. She's obviously a girl and yet they because she didn't act as a woman should in this time period, they all thought that she was a boy. Sakura doesn't know if she's embarrassed for herself, or for this era. Obviously so much could have slipped by them without them even knowing. Girls acting like boys and boys acting like girls. At least in Sakura's area, you can never assume the gender because it's given that no one should be outright trusted.

Sakura breaks her chopsticks and claps her hands together, "itadakimatsu", before eating the soup. It's really good. But perhaps at this point, Sakura will eat just about anything. She gobbles it up, though, barely tasting it after the first bite. She has it all finished off before Salma even walks back into the room.

When she does, with female clothes held in the crook of her right arm and a very familiar small plastic purple brush in her hand. "Oh," she says, looking at the empty bowl, "all done?"

Sakura nods, humming pleased, no longer able to be angry now that her stomach is filled with food. "You got my brush," she says.

Salma nods too, looking down at the brush in her hand. "Yes, I'm sorry for going through you things without your permission. But when you said you were a girl, I figured that you'd want to brush you hair and got the idea that you may have had one of your own on you, so I checked and found one so I thought you might want to use this one instead... I'm sorry if that was too presumptuous." She walks over to Sakura and lowers herself to her knees next to the pink haired girl and offering the hairbrush.

Sakura takes it slowly, looking down at it and feeling a pang of pain in her chest. Her pain must have shown on her face, because Salma bows a bit. "I'm truly sorry. I hope I didn't upset you."

"It's okay," Sakura says, running the pad of her pointer finger across the teeth of the brush, noting just how worn down it is.

"It's beautiful," Salma says. "It's purple and glitters like snow in the sunlight..."

Sakura smiles. "Yeah. It was my friend, Ino's, hairbrush. She really loved this sort of thing, but she gave it to me before she left, saying that I would probably end up needing it more than her." Sakura laughs thinly, recalling the blond smirking and giving Sakura a wink before heading off to battle and leaving Sakura behind. "Yeah... that was kind of a bitch thing for her to say, but I guess she ended up being right." Sakura brings it up to her hair and starts to brush through it, using her fingers to make the part in her down the middle. Her hair is now pretty dry, just a bit damp.

"She sounds like... a nice friend..." Salma says, not sure what to think of Sakura's words. Yes, she definitely spoke more manly.

"She is," Sakura says, letting out a little laugh. "Sure we didn't always get along, but she never sat back and let me get hurt if she could help me. I owe her a lot. A lot I don't think I ever thanked her for..." Sakura's hand slows down. She runs her fingers through her smooth pink hair slowly before lower the brush to look at the glittering back of it, thinking of her long time childhood friend and rival. It just seemed too surreal without the jabbering blond there with her.

"I'm sure that you will get the chance to," Salma says, smiling kindly. Her long brown hair brushing her legs when she leans forward to put the clothes next to Sakura. "I'll give you a moment to change. I'm sure Hashirama-sama will want to see you as soon as possible. Would you be able to go when you finish changing?"

Sakura nods, picking through the clothes and finds battle wrapping and smiles. "Thank you, Salma. I'll change and be out in a minute." Salma nods and stands up, walking to the door, closing it softly behind her.

Sakura pulls off her acting bathrobe and immediately starts putting the wrapping around her chest, then the underwear and the simple blue yukata with a white, orange and purple floral patter on the bottom. Sakura ties it tightly so that it won't fall off, and spots her regulation blue shoes and picks those up, thankful that they didn't throw them away. Sakura picks up her shoes and Ino's hairbrush, having already assumed that the rest of her things wouldn't be returned to her until later on. Thankful she didn't have many sentiment things on her. Or perhaps, that's a bad thing. Any mementos could be gone for all Sakura knew.

Sakura opens the door and sticks her head out to see Salma patiently waiting outside the door for her. She looks Sakura up and down and smiles, more to herself than Sakura and says, "I knew that would fit you. I'm getting good at this!" Sakura quirks an eyebrow at the other woman's words in question, but she just laughs and shakes her head and gestures for Sakura to follow her.

The two girls put on their shoes, Salma being much like Master Jiraiya's except they don't have the height. Simple civilian sandals.

The hot heat of the Land of Fire is blissfully familiar making her happy, but also tired. She won't be able to be out for too long. She'll have to return and rest again and try and continue to regain her strength. For now, her ailments have mostly been sated, but she's still tired and her slumber for the last few days haven't been what Sakura would call "restful".

As they walk through the small version of the Leaf, which was actually a collection of homes and a few cart venders dotted between the trees. Yes, before it's more industrial rule beneath the Third and the large number of expansions to the village, one could barely see all of the village from the view of the moment through all the trees. Sakura had to wonder if the First would be happy or sad to see what had ended up becoming of his village, years later. Large and prosperous, aside from the large dimple in the very center of it, but it lost a good portion of it's traditionalistic sense.

As Salma lead Sakura toward a large single floor meeting house with the Senju and Uchiha symbol on it, Sakura began to feel anxiety coil up in the pit of her stomach the closer they got. Sakura didn't know what she was going to say to the First Hokage. She wasn't sure how any of these things worked. Surely her being here had to be some sort of Time Displacement ninjutsu, but for the life of Sakura, she could recall when or if one was used.

Sakura was a bit torn. On one hand, she wanted nothing more than to run for her life away from this strange reality and era. She had always been fascinated learning about it, but she never wanted to be part of it. She didn't want to change her own reality, which if Sakura had to guess was already fucked up somehow because she was here, but she didn't want to think about that just yet. She's content living in oblivion right now. She doesn't want to think about what will happen if she ends up being unable to return home.

"Hashirama-sama," Salma says, knocking on the door politely, opening it just a crack to make sure they hear her and she can hear him. The voices inside get quiet. "You guest has awoken and is here to see you." Sakura glances over her shoulder at the Senju and Uchiha walking around, having stopped to look at her suspitiously, being a stranger in their new home.

"Ahh," Hashirama says. "Send him in, Salma."

She glances over at Sakura and her lips curl up in a small smile when Sakura's face blanches at his words. "Hai, my lord." She steps back from the door and bows a bit politely to Sakura. "Good luck... um," she and Sakura both blink at each other in realization that Sakura hadn't told Salma her name yet.

"Sakura," the pinkette says, smiling. "See you." Hopefully.

Sakura leans down and pulls her shoes off and leaves them by the three other pairs of clothes, noting just how small they are next the three obviously men's shoes. She has to roll her eyes again, annoyance fresh once again. Sakura opens the door and steps it, turning around immediately to close the door behind herself. She can sense three different chakra signatures behind her. She recognizes all of them and feels her anxiety raise.

Turning slowly, Sakura sees a large wooden room, with a table in the center of the room fit to hold up to eight people with cushions all plain colors; reds, blues, greens, whites, oranges. A few windows filling the room with light, two separate bookshelves with a few books and scrolls on them, and a couple of candles around the room to be lit for when it gets dark out.

As Sakura already suspected, and feared, Hashirama, sitting at the head of the table was flanked by Tobirama to his right and Madara to his left. All three of them were staring at her strangely. Hashirama looked down-right bewildered, Tobirama's eyes were narrowed, with one eyebrow quirked, while Madara's one eye was staring at her, half lidded with his head tilted slightly to the side.

"I'm sorry." Hashirama is the first to speak after a long moment of Sakura just awkwardly just standing by the door way, staring at them as they stared back at her. "Forgive my rudeness, I thought that you were..." he tilts his head slowly, looking more and more perplexed, "...someone else..."

Surprisingly, it took all of Sakura's willpower not to burst out laughing at their confused looks. Yes, she was a little annoyed that they thought she was a boy at first because it was a bit of a strike at her femininity, but to be standing before them again, just a few days later, having bathed and put on different clothes have a completely different reaction from such godly shinobi is a little funny. It helps loosen her anxiety, if only a little bit.

"Someone else?" Sakura says slowly, raising an eyebrow. "You mean like a pathological liar with delusional tendencies about winning against multiple, stronger opponents?"

All three of them stare at her for a few moments in silence before exchanging looks with each other. "Woman," they all say, as if it all suddenly made sense to them now. Where they were stalk still, staring at her just moments ago, trying to figure her out, they finally shift a bit, moving their muscles around. Sakura blanches again, letting out a huff under her breath.

"Right," Sakura mutters before straightening up, locking onto Hashirama with her eyes. "I would like to formally apologize to begin with, Hashirama-sama," Sakura steps into the room a bit to be better seen and bows deeply at waist. "I'm very sorry to the three of you and your respective clans for my lack of respect on our first meeting." Sakura could hear her all business voice, the one she got from Tsunade, crisp and to the point. But that's not what she wants, it's not what she's going for. While still bowed deeply at the waist, aside from silently praying to Kami that she doesn't suddenly tip over, says again. "I am very sorry. I know that first one didn't really sound like it, but I am. I guess I'm still a bit out of it."

"It's okay!" Hashirama says. Peaking through her eyelashes at the First Hokage, she can see him waving his hands around wildly. "Please straighten up. There is no need for you to apologize. It was a simple mistake and no one was hurt from it." A pause, he lowers his hands to his lap, then a chuckle comes from the long brown haired man. "Well, perhaps aside from hurt pride after this." Sakura obeys, straightening up, feeling the blood rush to her head. She blinks rapidly until the spots disappear before focusing on the three seated men at the table. Hashirama gestures for her to sit. "Perhaps introductions are in order?"

Sakura wanted to tell them that such a thing wasn't necessary. She already knew all three of them and she wasn't important enough for her name to be known by them, but when she didn't immediately move, Hashirama gestured again, seemingly completely unbothered by her hesitance.

"Thank you," Sakura says softly, lowering herself onto the red cushion at the opposite end of the table of Hashirama, trying hard to ignore the heavy gazes of Tobirama and Madara and focus on Hashirama's friendly and kind one instead.

"As I suppose you already know, I am Hashirama Senju," Hashirama says, pointing to himself.

"I am his younger brother, Tobirama Senju," the Second says simply, still staring at her with intense red eyes.

"Madara Uchiha," the final man says and his low voice makes Sakura shiver, recalling the first time she saw him. The smell of blood and death and decay. So much residual chakra in the air that Sakura could practically taste it in her mouth from both human and demon jutsu. Or straight up bijuudama. In retrospect, Sakura realizes just how bad that is. Chakra is a type of poison, that's why not everyone can be medical shinobi. They have to have enough control over their chakra to nullify it's adverse affects in a foreign body.

The shiver didn't go unmissed by the three in the room.

"Have you met Madara before?" Tobirama asks.

Yes. A long time from now. "No," Sakura says, then hesitates, wondering if they would be able to tell it was a lie. "Okay, yes, but not up close like this. It was from the distance..." Which wasn't necessarily a lie. She first saw him from a distance and then moved in to engage. Before they had time to really analyze her words, Sakura continues, "My name is Sakura Haruno." As soon as the words slipped from her lips, Sakura wondered if that was smart or not. Wouldn't it fuck something up if she gave her real name? It's at this point that she wished that she had delved more into Space-Time ninjutsu.

"Sakura!" Hashirama says suddenly, making Sakura jump and Tobirama and Madara turn to glare at the oldest in the room.

"Yes?" Sakura says, eyes wide in surprise.

"No, sorry. I was arguing with Tobirama about the tree that I wanted to put in the courtyard of the Senju compound this morning but for the life of me, I couldn't remember the name. That was it though, brother. Cherry Blossom tree."

Tobirama rolls his eyes. "Well done, brother. Now you can stop bothering everyone you talk to trying to explain the tree."

"No one knew what I was talking about!" Hashirama says, pouting.

"That's because the only thing you could offer was it bloomed in the summer and was beautiful and small compared to trees usually found in this area," Madara says, looking over at his friend. "That is nothing to go on."

"Anyway," Hashirama says, turning to Sakrua, "have you seen your namesake, Sakura?"

Sakura nods. "They grew around where I grew up. I was born during their blooming season and my mom liked the name," Sakura says offhandedly.

Hashirama suddenly looks excited. "Truly? Do you think they will grow around here? I saw them for the first time about four years ago. It was truly beautiful, you know, before it was burned down. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since."

"Nice going, by the way," Tobirama says, glaring at Madara. "And how does it feel knowing that while he was battling you, all he could think about was the pretty tree you burned down because he refused to focus on you?"

Madara's eyes narrow in annoyance while Sakura's hand trembled to fly to her face to cover her smile but instead she kept them on her lap and pressed her lips together to try and force the smile away. Hashirama looks amused too.

"Now, now, Tobirama, I was focusing on your battles, I would have died if I didn't," he says simply, which only seemed to annoyed the long black haired man more, but instead of responding to Tobirama's goad, her looks back over at Sakura with deep, pitch black eyes that appear endless. Sakura was hesitant to look into them, but then decided that so long as they stayed black, she would be okay.

"Where do you come from? And why were you dressed as a man?" Madara asks, seemingly more interested in taking care of Sakura's situation first than deal with Tobirama and Hashirama.

Sakura knew that they would ask her about her. Of course they would, she's stranger that just appeared out of nowhere and made a scene then passed out in a painfully cliché way before she could explain anything so it's only natural that they would need some answers, but for some reason as soon as he asked, pain and sadness filled her chest. There was a horrible twisting pain in her gut that she had perpetually during war, trying to cope watching people die left and right and feeling helpless because she couldn't do more.

And it was all Madara's fault.

Sakura lowers her head to look at her lap, seeing Ino's brush in her hands, her grip is tight, but not enough to break it. "It's gone now. My entire village is gone." Each word is like a knife in Sakura's chest, her voice is soft and uneven. She takes a moment to calm herself down, avoiding any form of eye contact with any of the men present. She did notice just how silent it became at her words. "As for why I was dressing like that, it was the basic shinobi garbs from my village."

"You're village is gone?" Hashirama says softly, eyebrows pulled together worried. "What happened to it?"

Sakura didn't know how to answer that. Technically, she had no idea what ultimately happened to Konoha. There would be no way for her to figure that out just short of her finally returning to her time, but something tells her that they wouldn't appreciate that answer, or at least understand it. Perhaps, Tobirama would, having delved into Space-Time Ninjutsu before with his Flying Thundergod technique.

So, instead, in her mind's eye, she sees Pein, floating over the village, hands spread out wide, ringed Rinnegan eyes staring down at the village with cold detachment as he summoned the power of old and destroyed her home and killed so many within it. The blinding power and disbelief. So easily. So easily one man was able to destroy eighty years of hard work and dedication and love. So quickly, in seconds it was all gone.

"Sakura?" Hashirama calls out to Sakura softly, pulling her from her memories.

Sakura is trembling, holding Ino's brush to her chest tightly, chin trembling with the force to contain her tears. It was so vivid. It was like she was there again. Watching as everything that she ever loved being destroyed. Sakura takes a slow trembling breath, reaching up to roughly wipe away the few tears that managed to escaped her eyes.

"I'm sorry," Sakura says finally, forcing a smile, her grip intensifying on the brush. At the last second, she drops the brush to her lap and grabs the edges of the table, not sure she can trust herself to hold Ino's brush any longer without snapping it in half with her strength. "Um, it was destroyed in the name of peace by a man who thought himself a god. We wouldn't give him what he wanted and so he..." Sakura shakes her head, dipping her head lower, unable to maintain the false smile any longer. "He destroyed it. He killed everyone he could. Oh, Kami," Sakura shakes her head again, curling further into herself. She can hear the crunch of the wood gripped between her fingers as it gives beneath her strength.

"He killed women and children, civilians, young and old! It didn't matter! He didn't care! Everyone... everyone I ever loved!" Sakura growls, louder than she intended, no longer feeling rational at all. She just wanted to let off some rage and pain, so much was swirling around inside of her, Sakura feels like she could blow at any moment. But she wasn't seeing Pein any longer, she was seeing Madara. "Damn him! Damn him and his false peace!"

"Who?" Tobirama asks, voice low and serious. "Where is he now?"

"Dead," Sakura says, harshly, feeling the wood give and come off in chunks in her hands, breaking off into a bunch of smaller splinters. "He didn't understand that while peace can never be eternal, it is up to the people to try and make it last for as long as they can. Death is not the solution," Sakura growls, standing up slowly, her entire body trembling with anger and pain, "it's merely a coward's way out. Denying the bad will also deny the good. Stripping away choice for war is the same as stripping away the chance to desire peace."

"Man's desire for peace can destroy far more than war could do any day," Sakura says softly, feeling weak and tired now. Her hands open slowly, suddenly away of the pain there to see the chunks of wood that she still had in her hand refused to nothing more than dust with the pressure for which she was squeezing. "I'm sorry," Sakura whispers, lowering herself back to the messy pillow, looking down at her hands held up level with her chest. She spots the splinters under her skin. "I'm sorry, the pain is still... fresh..."

She sniffles, forcing the tears back again, finally starting to relax. She needs to go somewhere and scream and cry to release this pain before she makes an even bigger ass of herself in front of Konoha's founders. Sakura as her healing chakra forces the splinters out of her hands, making her cringe at a particularly deep one pushing it's way out once more.

Sakura hears someone stand up but doesn't look up. They are probably stepping out to either give her a moment to collect herself or to call in the guards to throw her ass out of the village.

"You poor girl," Hashirama says, dropping down to his knees next to Sakura, shocking the pink haired girl at his sudden appearance. "That's why you were reacting like that when you saw us? I understand now. There is no need to worry anymore, you're safe." He reaches out, grabbing her shoulders and pulling her tightly against his chest, face deadly serious. "Such a thing is unforgivable," Hashirama says softly.

Sakura was tense at first, wondering if she was going crazy or not, but when Hashirama didn't immediately pull away and laugh or ask her to high-tail it out of their make-shift village but instead held her close and pet her now dry hair down whispering that he was so sorry against her hair.

Sakura closed her eyes, unable to look at Tobirama and Madara's slightly surprised looks on their faces any longer as she whispered that she too was sorry. Sorry that all of her precious people were without her, that she was here instead of with them trying to save the world. That Hashirama was unknowingly condemning his own best friend's actions.


	3. Help

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Another chapter. I like the hype with the story so far. *blushes* Thanks for all your kind words everyone! I'm sorry it's kind of slow right now, it will speed up a bit. Sorry! Thanks for everything so far! Let me know what you think so far! Enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing!
> 
> Warnings: Nothing much, maybe language.
> 
> Word Count: 6,507

Sakura wasn't really crying, no, that was still for later. But her body was trembling hard, trying to contain the emotions. Sakura has spent a great portion of her life crying about one thing or another, and everyone back home knew that, but here, no one did. They had no idea how strong or weak she was, and while she didn't start out the experience on a strong point and somehow managed to maintain that weak beginning with this display, she is really going to push herself to be as strong as she can be for the remainder of her time here.

Which she hopes, in a way, that it isn't going to be that much longer. She likes the First Hokage, well enough, and the Second and Madara of this time, have done her no wrong, but the longer she's here the more chance she has at messing something up.

Sakura finally starts to calm down, pulling away from Hashirama's comforting warmth and smiling up at him. It's small and weak but it's probably the most genuine she's had in a long time. "Thank you, Hashirama-sama. I'm sorry for being so emotional, but I think I'm okay for now."

Hashirama smiles down at her kindly, politely pulling back to give her some room. "Would you tell me about her?"

Sakura blinks quizzically up at him. "Who?"

He nods to Ino's brush that's on the floor now by Sakura's knees. "The person who owned that hairbrush before you." When Sakura just stared up at him in surprise, wondering how he could have known, he looks down at the brush with sad eyes and says, "You don't just grip something like a lifeline if it didn't somehow have sentimental meaning to you." His eyes adapt this far away look, as if recalling something that he held dear from someone he lost. "Do you want to tell me about her? Was a sister? Or a mother, perhaps?" He asks, pulling himself back from his memories.

Sakura picks up Ino's hairbrush, holding it up to see the glitter in the plastic reflect the light filtering into the room from the windows. In the corner of her eye, she can see the godly shinobi in the room watch with eyes widened slightly at the glittering light. Sakura had cleaned out the hair brush before she used it back home but now, looking at it in the light, she can see one strand of really long blond hair intertwined through the teeth of the brush, making her heart ache for lost friend. Hoping silently that wherever the blond was, she was safe.

"My best friend, actually," Sakura says, eyes locked onto the brush. "It's her favorite color. I met her when we were eight. For so long I was alone, never having any friends because I'm kind of... funny looking, I suppose. So, I was picked on a lot as a kid so I had no self esteem and Ino... she protected me. She scared the mean girls away and gave me a reason to like myself." Sakura smiles at the memory. "She gave me this really pretty red ribbon to help pull my hair back but when we had a falling out a few years later, I gave it back to her."

Hashirama leans back, still facing Sakura with his legs crossed in front of him, resting an elbow on the table and leans against it. Normally, Sakura would assume that he was just trying to be kind, get her mind off of the fact that everyone she knew was gone - dead, as far as they knew - but Sakura got the impression that he was actually interested or at least polite enough to try hard to be.

"What did you two fight about?" Hashirama asks, giving Sakura the impression that he hasn't had much of a chance to talk to girls. Sakura had to guess that being in war had that sort of affect on people. Perhaps Hashirama was interested in what Sakura had to say because he had such little experience talking to someone who's lived a different life than the women of his and the Uchiha clan. If that was the case, then Sakura could understand. If Sakura remembered correctly, the two warring clans had been fighting since their grandfathers' time. Now this makes a lot of sense.

Sakura scoffs a bit, shaking her head a bit. "Typical girl drama, I suppose. We fought over a boy," Sakura laughs dryly. "What a silly thing to fight over. The local heartthrob ended up nearly ruining my relationship with my best friend," Sakura shakes her head again. "But luckily, a few years after that, we were able to mend our relationship. I love Ino, truly. She's um, well since you guys thought I was a boy anyway, might as well speak your language," Sakura laughs, smiling up at Hashirama, seeing him look a little embarrassed at the mistake, "she was kind of a bitch but that's because she knows what she wants."

Hashirama barks out a laugh, probably not expecting Sakura's language in regards to her friend. He must have sensed that she only says it out of love and, thankfully, doesn't appear to be insulted by Sakura's blunt way of saying things. Sakura has to wonder if perhaps he's thinking of his own relationship with a certain hot headed Uchiha. But Sakura makes sure not to look his way, not wanting to tempt fate if the Uchiha was insulted by her insinuating anything.

"She's strong and beautiful and can be kind and caring when she wants to be but she is dedicated and loyal to her friends. Even when we were fighting, she always kept an eye out for me," Sakura says softly, remembering the Chunin Exams in the Forest of Death. "She's everything I'm not. She's beautiful; long blond hair and big blue eyes. Ino's the type of girl to know that she's beautiful and know how to show it off. She is so strong and so sure of herself and she doesn't let anyone tell her otherwise. I envied everything about her. I knew she wasn't perfect, and so did she, but she was also so confident in her imperfections that just... made me love her more."

Sakura paused, collecting her thoughts. "The last time I saw her, she gave me her hairbrush and said, "Well, Sakura, after an ordeal like this, you and I are definitely going to have to go out and have a girl's day and invite the rest of the girls. Give ourselves some time to recuperate and beautify ourselves and get right back out there! But here, I'll leave my brush with you. Knowing you, you'll probably need it more than I will anyway." Then she did that bitchy hair flip thing that she can do so well," Sakura says, laughing a bit. At Hashirama's confused look, Sakura demonstrated, running her hand through her newly cleaned pink hair and flips it back.

That draws another laugh from Hashirama.

"So, she's really cocky and arrogant and very confident in herself. But she really can be sweet when she wants to be and one of the best people in the world if she warms up to you. Does that make sense?" Sakura asks, for some reason caring whether or not the First liked her best girl friend or not.

Hashirama nods, smiling fondly, once again probably mentally recalling his own friend. "Yes," he says. "I have a friend similar to that." His eyes flicker over to the scowling Uchiha and Hashirama bursts out laughing. "Whenever I talk about a friend, why do you automatically assume I'm talking about you, Madara?" Hashirama asks, grinning broadly. "My life doesn't revolved around you!"

"It doesn't?" Madara asks blandly. "You could have fooled me. And besides that, I thought I was the only one who could stand listening to you most of the time."

The corner of Sakura's lips quirk up a bit more, surprised at this vastly different Madara than the one she's used to. Hashirama turns his gaze over to his younger brother. "I have Tobirama, too, you know," he says airily, grinning.

Tobirama stares back at Hashirama with crimson red eyes in silence for a moment before finally sighing. Madara suddenly looks amused before Tobirama even speaks, as if already knowing what the white haired man is going to say. "To be honest, brother," Tobirama says slowly, "I mostly just tune you out."

Sakura has never seen someone get so depressed, so suddenly. Sakura couldn't help herself, she reaches out and puts a hand on his shoulder. "I'll be your friend, Hashirama-sama, if you want." That brightens the soon-to-be First Hokage up quick enough.

"You are too sweet, Sakura-chan," Hashirama says and the way her grinned at her and the honorific added on to her name, made her think about her other best friend, in another blond with blue eye, but this one was a boy. Hashirama reminded Sakura of Naruto. That was one of the reasons he was so easy to talk to. But, once again, Sakura had to wonder how much of her life was suppose to be secret, or just what was okay to say without ruining anything. The way Sakura sees it, simple first names and generic enough stories with little to no details on specific things about the future. Nothing too special about bitchy girls, right?

There was a long silence while Sakura was trapped in her thoughts and when she finally pulled herself out of them she looked up at Hashirama to see that he was looking at Tobirama and Madara, communicating with them with just his eyes. Sakura looks between them before bowing her head. Even if she can't understand their silent communication, it for some reason feels impolite just watching them as if she could.

"You're stubborn as a mule," Tobirama mutters, narrowing his eyes. "Do as you will."

Hashirama beams, pleased to have gotten his way. His eyes flicker over to the long dark haired Uchiha with big doe eyes. "Madara..."

The Uchiha clan leader turns away from all of them and looks out the window that was behind Hashirama when he sat at the other end of the table. The bright sunlight dies his hair a more gray-black color and adds a bit of a tan to his face that probably wouldn't be there otherwise. From the side facing Sakura was the one obscured by his long straight black hair. Sakura had to wonder how he could wear his dark blue Uchiha traditional garbs in this heat? She was already starting to sweat in her thin clothes.

"Fine," Madara finally says, turning back to look over at Hashirama with a large, pitch black eye, the other hidden behind the mop of long hair. Hashirama's face brightens but Madara holds up a hand to stop him before he can get too excited. "But if we want this village to become stronger, we need everyone to pull their own weight. We can't afford hand outs right now. If she can pull her hold her own, then fine, I see no reason to chase her away," he says slowly, looking down at Sakura with intense eyes that make her shift back slightly from where she's sitting.

Sakura must have had an oblivious look on her face because when Hashirama turns to look at her, smiling broadly, he explains, "So, we've talked it over" Tobirama scoffs at that but is ignored, "and we would like to know if you would like to come and live here? This village is going to be a new opportunity for everyone to get a fresh start. Would you like to be part of that?"

Sakura feels so flattered to be asked by the village founders, personally, to live here, in her future home. Sakura didn't know what to do. Was it smart to stay in the Hidden Leaf or was it smart to just leave and figure out how to go home somewhere else? Sakura wished she had some sort of clue as to what she's suppose to be doing here, but she was left just guessing as to what she had to do. Sakura had no idea if she was screwing anything up or not. Sakura wished that this came with clear instructions on what she had to do, what she could do and what she couldn't do.

"I would love to stay," Sakura says slowly, "but I don't want to be invited out of pity. I know I can help out around here, but if I'm going to do that, then... you have to be honest with me about whether I'm actually being helpful or not. And I'm being seriously," Sakura raises her chin and looks at Hashirama with determent eyes, "if you guys, at any point, think that I'm not useful anymore, then you have to let me know. I've been carried a good portion of my life without people saying much to me about it and I don't want it to be that way anymore. Tell me, okay?"

Hashirama nods. "Okay," he says with an appeasing tone, much to Sakura's chagrin.

"You promise?" Sakura says, narrowing her eyes at the long brown haired man. "You have to promise."

He holds up a hand and smiles. "Promise."

Sakura shyly glances over at the other two founders for a moment before lifting her chin again. "You two as well, Tobirama-sama, Madara-sama."

"Fine," Tobirama says simply.

"Very well," Madara says, black eye still intently staring at her.

Sakura nods, looking down at the edge of the table she ruined. "Um, sorry about the table."

Hashirama waves his hand in a dismissive gesture. "Don't worry about it, it can be fixed." He smiles kindly. Sakura wanted to argue but a glimpse passed Hashirama at Madara behind him, shaking his head slowly in warning made her complaint die half way up her throat.

"I don't think I can do anything today," Sakura says, getting down to business, looking away from Madara. "I still have to finish regaining my chakra and winding down from whatever was wrong with me, but I should let you know what I can do so first thing tomorrow, I can be put to work. I have extensive medical training. I know how to perform a multitudes of different surgeries both with chakra and without. I have high levels of taijutsu and can see through most low level to high level genjutsu. Very few ninjutsu that aren't medically based and I'm an adept at medical ninjutsu theory."

Hashirama's eyebrows quirk up and he nods, standing up and walking over to one of the book stands and picking up a scroll off of it and an ink and brush before walking back over to his original seat, sitting down with the length of one leg against the ground with the other knee propped up into the air. It's a strange, oddly boyish way of sitting, yet it seems to fit him just fine. He opens the scroll up and amongst the writing in it, he makes a few more marks, humming a tune to himself under his breath. He blows softly on the new marks, giving it a moment, before doing it again and tapping the drying ink with the tip of his finger before blowing on it again.

Once he seems satisfied that it's dry, he rolls up the scroll until he's got a new, clean area. He taps his chin for a moment with the wooden end of the brush, before making some more markings.

"What are you doing, Hashirama?" Madara finally asks after a few minutes of silence. Sakura was beginning to wonder that herself. Tobirama was looking passed Hashirama out the window that Madara was looking out earlier. It took Sakura a moment to realize that he was feeling out the world around them with his chakra, Sakura had forgotten that the Second Hokage was a very skilled sensor. It appeared as though he wasn't looking for anything in specific, just feeling out for dangers before pulling his chakra back and looking back over at Hashirama.

"Brother?" Tobirama says, when Hashirama didn't respond, moreso because he was lost in his thoughts rather than disrespect toward Madara.

"Had I said something strange?" Sakura asks, when still there was no response, Hashirama bent over the scroll now, scribbling down something intently, his hand not seeming to be able to write fast enough for whatever is flowing from his mind.

"Since he is in his own world," Madara says, turning away from Hashirama to look over at Sakura again. "What is your clan known for? I've never heard of such a clan."

Tobirama also looks over. "Nor have I. Where is your family from?"

"My family isn't originally from the Land of Fire, but I'm not part of a clan, I'm a second generation shinobi from a merchant family. I have no bloodlimit," Sakura says, shrugging her shoulders. "Sorry about that." She smiles at the odd looks on their faces, feeling slightly better now that she's out of her emotional slump for now.

"What does that mean, 'second generation'?" Tobirama asks.

"My parents became shinobi, the first of my family line and I followed in their footsteps," Sakura says. "In my village that was okay. The norm, really. Civilian children could train to become shinobi alongside clan-born children."

"Brilliant!" Hashirama says suddenly, making all three of them jump. The trio turn to glare at the eldest in the room.

"You're back," Tobirama says blandly, glaring at his elder brother just a little bit harder. "So, now what are you talking about?"

Hashirama smiles sheepishly, letting out a little laugh while rubbing the back of his head with his free hand. "Sorry about that. Sometimes inspiration just comes to me out of nowhere. Now, as for what you were saying, I would love to be able to implement that in our own village. Would you mind, Sakura?"

Sakura's eyes widen. "Implement...? You mean, you want to make it part of this villages..." It was so strange. This village was already going to allow children from civilian families become shinobi eventually, but for some reason, just sitting here, being asked if something that is already a reality to Sakura be put into her future is a little strange, and surreal. She knew she was here at the village's founding, but to be part of the planning... To be able to help create it's structure... it's even more strange and surreal.

And once again, Sakura hasn't a clue what she should do in this situation. Naturally, she was born in this village and this was a way of life, so it should be fine, right? They were going to let it happen anyway. So there shouldn't be much of an issue, right? They never covered in school when civilian children were allowed to enter the Academy, just that they could. Anyone could become a shinobi within a Hidden Village or outside of it. So long as someone is willing to train them, anyone can learn the ways of the ninja.

"Yes," Sakura says, finally deciding, wearily, hoping it wasn't a bad idea. "If you want to use that idea, you can. It's your village..."

Hashirama smiles kindly. "Sure, but it was in your village first, I didn't want to upset you."

Sakura's eyes widen. "Oh, I see..." she smiles. "That's okay. Thank you. If you want to do that, then you're more than welcome to." Even though none of them know it, it didn't mean that the idea didn't originally come from the Leaf so it should be fine. Sakura hopes.

Hashirama beams. "Oh, I'm so happy! Sakura, you'll have to tell me more about your village sometime, it may give me some good ideas. I mean, so long as you are okay with it."

Sakura nods. So long as they are things that were already implemented in Sakura's time, that she knows wasn't put into place during the Third's reign. But even then, there was no guarantee. Things like that ended up happening anyway, so even if they happen sooner shouldn't be bad, right? Man, Sakura really needs to get her hands on some space-time ninjutsu and read up on them.

"So what were you writing down, earlier?" Madara asks, only looking slightly annoyed.

Hashirama stares at him blankly for a moment, not seeming to understand what he was saying. Madara points down at the scroll with a blank look on his face. Hashirama looks down at the scroll, scanning it with his eyes before looking back up at Madara, "Oh, I was making a note to myself. I was finding the best place to put Sakura once she starts gets up tomorrow. There is still a lot of people that are hurt from the war on both sides. We can use as much help as we can get and if she has medical training, that's invaluable."

"I may not be able to do a lot, but I could help some of the more critical ones now," Sakura says standing up. "My chakra is stable and I feel well enough right now to help out."

"You just woke up," Hashirama says, holding up his hands. "And you just got over your fever."

"I know," Sakura says simply, "but I'm also a medical shinobi and I won't be able to sleep if I don't at least try and help. Come on, please?" She makes her eyes as large as she can. "You can have anyone supervise if your worried that I'm dangerous or something."

"No, that's not it," Hashirama says, waving his hands around. "I'm worried about you. There hasn't been a case of Uchiha fever in years. It was brought down from the north with the Uchiha family as they began their conquest. I can't believe you caught it somehow. You must have a really weak immune system to have caught that. You still have to rest."

"I will," Sakura says, standing up slowly, looking down at the brush in her hand for a moment, remembering her friends and wishing that they were all okay. She places the brush onto her waist line, holding it there with her obi. "But, I want to try and help. My chakra is fully restored so I can help a decent number of people. Since I'm going to be staying here, and I promised to help anyway, means I might as well start as soon as possible right? Lives depend on it." Sakura bows deeply. "Hashirama-sama, please allow me to help out now. I promise I won't push myself too hard today."

Hashirama blinks a few time before looking over at Tobirama, shrugging. "She's adamant. Brother, could you show her the way and watch over her? I've got-"

A knock at the door cuts him off. The door behind Sakura opens up a crack and a man's voice calls in, "Lord Hashirama, we need you as soon as you can step away."

"Understood, Keiga, I'll be out in a second, wait for me," Hashirama says.

"Undertstood, my lord," the man - Keiga - says in a low voice, almost as low as Madara's. The door slowly slides shut behind Sakura but she doesn't feel the presence behind it leave, as per Hashirama's orders.

"Awesome, let's go, then, Tobirama-sama, let's hurry up and see if we can help out," Sakura says looking over at the Second Hokage as she straightens up. He nods, standing up slowly, letting his bones crack back into place before heading for the door, past Sakura. "Thank you, Hashirama-sama." Sakura tips her chin toward Madara, respectfully. Just because they are enemies in the future, doesn't mean she has to break his back now... hopefully. She's probably never going to not be weary of him, but there is no way she's going to be dumb enough to try and make an issue out of it right now.

For the moment, Madara seems to be calm and not mass-murderous... or whatever he was in the future, and Sakura wasn't about to speed up the process of him becoming that way. So the best thing to do is probably stay out of his path and not reveal anything that could alter the future any more than it probably already has because of Sakura's lack of knowledge. Kami, Sakura hopes that whatever this is ends soon.

Sakura follows Tobirama out, waiting for him to slip his shoes on and step out of the way before she sits down and reaches down to grab her own shoes, but the building must not have been on even ground for this side is a good foot and a half up off the ground, Sakura must have been really out of it not to notice before. Someone picks up Sakura's shoes for her and holds them out for her to take. Sakura looks up to see an Uchiha with large pitch black eyes and short wild black hair, but there a sort of soft, somber look to his face.

"Ma'am," he says softly, avoiding eye contact.

Sakura takes her shoes, "thank you," she murmurs, slipping them on. She pauses when a pale hand is offered to her. Sakura takes it and lets him help her lower to the dirt peacefully. Very gentlemanly. "Thank you," she says again, smiling up at the Uchiha. He nods, closing his eyes and steps aside and bowing his head a bit to stand like a silent guardian next to the door, waiting obediently for Hashirama as ordered.

Sakura pats her clothes, making sure there is no damage to the fabric. The last thing Sakura would want is to ruin such a beautiful yukata that isn't even hers. Sakura's sure that Salma won't be too happy to hear that. Sakura feels tired, walking with Tobirama back through the small village toward the little clinic. For a moment, Sakura wonders if he's just going to put her back to bed and leave her, but then it became obvious. Of course the only logical place to take one's sick and injured would be the clinic, since they don't have a working hospital yet.

As they draw near, Tobirama deters slightly, going around the clinic with Sakura following obediently behind him. It's only when they get around to the back that she can see all of the medical tents put up and people, mostly women, running around from tent to tent trying to save as many people as possible. As soon as Sakura sees it, she knows this chaos won't save as many people. Sakura is surprised that she couldn't hear this chaos earlier and had to wonder if there was some sort of seal around the area to contain everything like disease and sound from the rest of the small village. Sakura didn't know.

Sakura gets to work immediately, pulling back her long sleeves, turning to Tobirama. "I'm off then. Thank you for leading me. Bye," Sakura says, walking toward the nearest tent without waiting for the Second to say anything. Thankfully, it was a medical supply tent. She steals some bandages and ties up her sleeves so they are out of the way and cleans her hands before grabbing some supplies and steps out of the ten and heads to the one directly across from it.

"Who are you?" an Uchiha woman asks, narrowing her eyes dangerously.

"Hashirama's orders," Tobirama says, right from over Sakura's shoulder. She jumps, glancing up at him quickly, wondering how long he was going to shadow her, but then decides that it doesn't matter right now. The young Uchiha boy laying on the boy was writhing in pain on the table, whimpering like a wounded dog was more important then her curiosity over her new shadow. Sakura easily slipped into her medical mode.

The Uchiha woman settles a bit, but still looks at Sakura wearily. "Very well, then. We could use the extra hands." Her eyes flicker down at Sakura's clothes. "You should change out of those first, they'll get messy quickly."

Sakura nods. "Okay, sure, I'll change and just come right back."

The woman arches an eyebrow. "Sure."

Sakura looks at her for a moment, not liking the bland look on her face. Sakura had become so used to people just nodding and thinking that Sakura could do just about anything that the skepticism on the woman's face was a little irking. Relax, Sakura, relax. They don't know how she is just yet, they'll see. But that's not what matters right now. Saving lives is.

Sakura follows the Uchiha woman and quickly changes into a black, sleeveless yukata and heads back in to see the boy. She makes her way over to the Uchiha. He's younger than Sakura, probably thirteen or fourteen. His normally pale Uchiha face is even paler and his face is twisted in a look of pain. He's in only pants and his stomach is discolored with internal bleeding.

When one of the women looked about to protest about Sakura just touching the boy, but Sakura simply says, "I'm a medical shinobi," and that shushed her fast. Sakura lays her hands onto his smooth, pale stomach. "Who is he?" Sakura asks, looking down at the whimpering boy.

"His name is Seito, he's fourteen years old. He's been bleeding internally but we don't know why. He just showed up this morning. He's been in too much pain to tell us anything," one of the woman says.

"Seito," Sakura says, leaning over the boy a bit. "Can you open your eyes, sweetie?"

His pale eyelids part a bit and two black orbs are revealed, looking weak and disoriented. "It hurts," he whimpers.

Sakura smiles kindly. "Did you fall?" He looks hesitant. "It's okay. You can tell me. I'm not going to be mad," Sakura says, sending chakra into the boy's body slowly.

"Yes, ma'am," he says softly.

"You did fall?" Sakura clairifies. He nods. "And you landed on your stomach?" Another nod. "And judging by the shape of the discolored skin, something long enough to give you a bruise across the stomach, like say, a tree branch?" She raises an eyebrow. The boy doesn't respond, but looks away. "No need to say anything, I think I've got enough."

Sakura feels the inside of the boy with her chakra. He's got a bruised rib and a broken one on the same side. It's nicked an organ, causing him to slowly bleed internally, but thankfully it's still early and can be fixed without any long term issues. As Sakura was healing the hurt organ, she had to wonder to herself how he could have hit a tree branch so hard to have literally broken a rib. She's sure there is more to the story, but she got what mattered.

Once the organ was healed, she sends soothing chakra to his bruised rib, ebbing down the pain a bit. Sakura pulls her chakra back and walks over to a neatly folded rag and picks it up, bringing it to her nose and sniffing it. The harsh smell of chemicals that have soaked into the rag is strong. Sakura puts it down and looks around.

"Is there anything he can bite down on?" Sakura asks, looking around the room at the people in it.

"Why?" the Uchiha woman asks, crossing her arms over her chest.

"He has a broken rib, I need to set it," Sakura says simply, staring at the woman, "and forgive me if I don't trust him not to bite his tongue off in pain."

"You can't set a rib," she says, giving Sakura the most bitchiest, snobbiest look Sakura has seen in a while.

Sakura narrows her eyes. "When I get something to stop him from biting his tongue, then I'll show you just how much I can set ribs. Now, do you want to keep arguing or can we get this boy some help?" The woman doesn't respond so Sakura looks around the tent. "Anything?"

Another woman grabs a rang from behind her and offers it to Sakura. "This is clean," she says, dark blue eyes wide.

Sakura takes it, nodding her thanks, before leaning over Seito's pale form. "Seito, I need you to listen to me, right now, okay?" The boy opens his eyes a bit more, since the pain has lessened.

"Yes, ma'am," Seito murmurs, blinking slowly.

"I need you to bite down on this. What you are about to feel is going to be sharp, but sudden and then it'll be done, do you understand? This is so you don't bite your tongue," Sakura says as calm as she can. Seito looks worried and even looses more color to him, if that was even possible, and opens his mouth to accept the rag. Sakura balls it up and puts it in his mouth. "Can you break alright? I mean, as much as you can with a broken rib."

Seito nods, breathing through his nose, eyes wide.

Sakura puts her hands over the rib, closing her eyes to concentrate. She can feel the people in the room shift closer to get a better look. If Sakura could remember correctly, only top ranking medical shinobi and someone like Hashirama was able to mend bones in this time period. But those were bones in the limbs. Arms and legs of the like. Bones in the torso are a lot more sensitive. There is a larger margin for error. Luckily, Sakura is actually really good at fixing bones. No matter where they are in the body.

"Are you ready, Seito?" Sakura whispers. He whimpers in affirmation, stomach muscles tightening a bit beneath her fingers. Sakura wraps her chakra around his broken rib, starting the mend the smaller pieces back together cleanly before snapping it back into place. There is a sickening cracking noise and Seito cries out in pain, muffled by the rag, throwing his head back a bit before falling back flat on the table, trembling.

Sakura opens her eyes and looks down at Seito, sending in soothing chakra to settle the pain receptors. The young boy has tears streaming out of the corners of his glassy eyes that he's bravely trying to force back, while staring up at Sakura. She reaches up and removes the rag and sets it down out of the way.

"How do you feel?" Sakura asks softly, wiping his tears away. "Better?"

He nods, blushing. "Thank you, ma'am." He clears his throat, trying to scrap a bit of his dignity off the table. Sakura rolls her eyes, not caring too much for the macho Uchiha attitude.

"You'll be a little sore for a few days so no strenuous exercising for about a week, understood?" Sakura asks, narrowing her eyes a bit.

Seito frowns, looking away. "Yes, ma'am."

Sakura doesn't believe him one bit. Sakura smiles cruelly, reaching out and pinching both sides of Seito's cheeks and pulling them out, glaring. "Now listen to me now, you little Uchiha bastard. If you dare disobey me, I will hunt you down and break all of your ribs. There is a man in this village that can save your lily white ass from my wrath, you hear?" Sakura snarls, getting up close to the young boy. "Is there any part of what I said that's unclear?"

Seito shirks back, looking like he wants to sink into the table and out of existence, shaking his head briskly. Anyway to get as far away from Sakura as possible. Sakura looks him in the eye for a moment, debating on whether to believe him or not, but once she sensed he was afraid enough of her to not disobey, she released him and turned around.

"Excellent, I'm ready to move on now," Sakura says to no one in particular before heading out of the tent.

 

Sakura moved from tent to tent over the next couple hours, helping out everyone she could get her hands on, easily sending them all on their way. She heals the range of injuries from broken bones to internal bleeding, but alas, after a few short hours, Sakura couldn't continue any longer and had to head back to her room. About twenty minutes into it, Sakura forgot about Tobirama's careful eye and just took the role that came naturally to her.

People were fighting her at first, challenging her leadership, but when she started getting results right away, they fell into line and started listening right away. It probably didn't hurt that Tobirama was her shadow. Sakura had to wonder if the Second had anything more important to do instead of just following Sakura around, which she knows was an order from Hashirama, but still.

"This is where we separate," Tobirama says when Sakura sat down to take her shoes off outside her door. "I will see you tomorrow, then."

"Uh, thanks..." Sakura says, looking up in time to see the white haired man turn and walk away. Sakura blinks rapidly in confusion at his curtness.

Tobirama makes it a few feet away before stopping, turning his head slightly, offering Sakura his masculine, profile. Strong nose and chin, narrow eyes and broad jaw. His right red eye hones in on her, making her suddenly feel a little breathless at the intensity of his gaze. "Good work today," he says curtly, before turning and walking off without another word. Sakura watches him go until he's disappeared through the trees.

Sakura takes her shoes off, running a hand through her hair, pushing it back a bit and letting out a sigh before standing up and heading into her room to get some much needed rest before tomorrow comes. While she was still doing pretty good chakra-wise, her body could no longer stay away after too many days of restless sleep, and shut down right as her head touched her pillow.


	4. Kaido

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Thank you all for your nice words, everyone! I'm sorry about the wait! Sorry that there isn't a lot of interesting stuff going on right now, but don't worry, it'll start getting interesting soon. Thanks for reading so far! I love hearing what you all have to say! There will be a poll later on about the couples but right now I'm trying to get a bit of interaction with all three of the potential love interests. Madara hasn't had much of a turn yet, but perhaps that'll change in future chapters. :D Let me know what you think! Enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing!
> 
> Warnings: Nothing much, maybe language.
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> Word Count: 6,754

Sakura is standing in a wide open field, wearing a long, heavy kimono. It weighs down heavily on her shoulders. Sakura isn't used to wearing a kimono yet for some reason it feels comforting on her. It protected her from the cold breeze that ruffled her long hair. Sakura looks around the large field at all the bright colors of the grass and the flowers. It's cold enough to hurt the tip of her nose, but yet the flowers around her still live. She exhales and her breath comes out like fog around her mouth. Sakura begins walking toward the trees that circle the wide field she was standing in.

As she drew closer to the trees, she realizes that they are covered in snow. She turns back around slowly, looking back at the field, to see that the field is now covered in snow. Sakura found it odd on the inside, but for some reason, she was unable to react on the outside. She just turns and walks through the forest, slowly. She steps over protruding tree roots and drags the back of her kimono across the ankle deep snow.

Sakura isn't sure how long she was walking, just staring forward, ignoring the world around her until she reached a large, half-frozen lake. Sakura walks to the edge and looks out over the ice-cold water. There was no noise around her, everything was white and brown. And when she looked down at the water at her feet, seeing the Rabbit Goddess staring back up at her.

Sakura flies up in her bed, heart pounding. A hand flies up over her chest, trying to slow down her erratically beating heart. She looks around the room, searching for the Rabbit Goddess, but her mind quickly pulls her back to her new present. She hasn't met her yet in this time period. Nor does anyone even know about that... woman here. She's nothing to them and for some reason, that relaxes Sakura a bit.

Sakura lowers her hand a bit and looks around the familiar, bland hospital room. She looks down at her change of clothes, she's in a simple white yukata with her hospital garbs folded up neatly next to her. Sakura smiles, knowing that it had to be Salma's doing. She bathes quickly and changes into her new hospital yukata before heading out of the room, looking up at the sky.

It's bright and blue with puffy white clouds of all shapes and sizes. Some are bigger then buildings while others are merely wisps in the sky. It also appears to be late afternoon, early evening. But now that Sakura is thinking about it, this is the best she's felt in a long time. Even with passing out the night before, Sakura's feeling a little bit better since before the war started.

But she's still in the past, and in her future, there is still a war going on.

That sank Sakura's mood quickly.

She slips her shoes on and immediately heads around back to get a late start on her day of healing people. She was just sending out the second person of the day, a young woman with a twisted ankle, when Salma slipped into the tent.

"You slipped out when I was away," She says, reaching up and running her hand through the tail of her trapped hair. She has a plate of rice balls and some tea. "How about getting some food in your stomach?" She smiles kindly, offering her the food and the tea.

Sakura takes the tray and drink. "Thank you, Salma, would you like to sit and eat these with me?"

Salma looks a bit surprised, and then smiles, nodding and taking a rice ball. "Thank you, Sakura-san."

Sakura takes a sip of her green tea, sighing in content as the warm liquid slides down her throat. She leans back against the medical table, looking over at the long brown haired young woman. "You're older than me, Salma. Just call me Sakura."

Salma smiles, nodding and chewing on the rice ball. She swallows it and looks over at Sakura with light green eyes. "Very well, Sakura-chan." Sakura rolls her eyes which makes Salma laugh.

They eat in silence for a few minutes. After Sakura finished her third rice ball, Salma finally turns to her, looking amused, "So, I heard a very interesting rumor while I was doing laundry this morning..." Salma says slowly, looking over at Sakura from the corner of her eyes.

Sakura arches a dainty pink eyebrow. "Oh?" Sakura mumbles, reaching over to grabbing another rice ball ad taking a bite.

Salma nods, leaning against the table next to Sakura, their shoulders touching. She's almost a head taller than Sakura. Sakura huffs a bit under her breath at Salma's assets. She's tall and beautiful and she speaks kindly. Unlike Sakura.

"Yes," Salma says. "Apparently there is miracle healer that is both angelic and demonic. Kind and wonderous if you obey, but deadly and fierce if you go against her will." Salma laughs, covering her mouth with her hand before looking back over at Sakura. "That's you, isn't it?" she asks, already suspecting the answer to that question.

Sakura blanches at the brown haired woman's words. "I am not demonic, those bastards! It's their faults that I have to hurt them," Sakura growls, glaring out the flaps of the tent. "If they do stupid things, they should expect to get hurt because of it. It's the law of nature. Well, you know what? Fine. They can call me demonic all they want, I'll show them a real demon!" Sakura clenches her fist, laughing evilly.

Salma laughs, tilting her head, looking as though she half believes that Sakura is lying. Sakura settles down, eating the rest of her rice ball before drinking the remainder of her tea and laying it down on the plate.

"Thanks for the food, Salma," Sakura says, reaching her hands up above her head and stretches, raising up on her tip toes. "That was good," she continues, relaxing and heading to the tent flaps, glancing over her shoulder at the brown haired woman. "I going to keep helping out. The faster we clean this place out, the faster we can make proper accommodations for future injured." An actual working hospital, Sakura thinks, letting out a quiet sigh.

Salma nods, grabbing the plate and following Sakura out into the early evening sun. "That sounds like a great idea, Sakura-chan. I'm looking forward to it. Good luck and try not to push yourself too hard, okay?" Salma tilts her head cutely, smiling. Sakura waggles her fingers at the tall, brown haired girl before heading off, looking around for the next person to help.

 

Kana is seriously getting on Sakura's last nerves.

Kana Uchiha is the woman that has been hounding Sakura in the medical tents since she showed up. It's nearing night time now and Sakura's patience has run thin with the woman. She has beautiful long black hair with large black eyes, surrounded by thick, dark lashes. She's very pale and is tall and elegant. Sakura has been watching her the last two hours intently, trying to figure her out.

She's got good chakra control and is competent as a medical shinobi. No, she takes that back. She's a shinobi with some medical abilities. She is no medical shinobi. Just thinking about comparing the two makes Sakura feel sick. She's annoyed with her. She has passion, but she's stuck in the past. She seems to be more concerned with helping out Uchiha born than Senju.

Sakura supposed that it was natural, they did just get out of a war with them and Kana certainly wasn't the only one showing the that sort of tendency, so Sakura couldn't blame her. But she's the one that's literally been fighting Sakura at every twist and turn. It's nothing big. It's little things, comments here and there, looks of the like. It has really begun to grate on her nerves, so she tries to put as much distance between herself and the annoyed Uchiha, trying to focus solely on just helping people. But since the entire village is expanding, and rapidly, there are injuries here and there. Hashirama can't build all the buildings.

Sakura walks passed a sanitary tent, a lot better constructed than the others. It's meant to try and keep as much bad air out. It's usually meant for people with diseases. Sakura grabs a passing nurse.

"Who's in there?" Sakura asks, nodding toward the tent.

The Senju woman looks at the tent for a moment before sighing. "That's Kaido Senju. He was... um, burned pretty bad on his right side. His arm and most of his shoulder by a fire style jutsu. It was an accident. He appeared out of nowhere and got caught in the crossfire. Poor thing." She looks over at the tent with sad, light blue eyes. She sighs again and looks over at Sakura, suddenly looking interested. "Are you going to go in there?" she asks. This woman, though her name eludes Sakura at the moment, is one of the few around here that Sakura can stand easily.

"Yes," Sakura says. "How long ago was it since he was burned?"

"This morning," she says, pushing a strand of blond hair from her face.

Sakura pulls back the tent cover and steps inside, heading into the dome part of the tent to see a man, in his late twenties to early thirties, laying prone on the table top. The nurse, who followed Sakura in, wasn't stretching the truth. His arm was badly burned and across his stomach, chest and neck is a bit of chakra burns. Sakura washes her hands and then walks over to him, letting her hands hover over his arm, sending healing chakra to her hands.

The nurse, Rika, Sakura recalls, leans in a bit to get a better look. "Can you heal him?" she asks, after an entire minute of silence from the pink haired girl.

Sakura's hands finally roam down to his hand when she jerks back, eyes wide. "It's still alive!" Sakura gaps, stepping closer again and sending more healing chakra into his arm.

"What is it?" Rika asks, leaning in closer. "What's alive?"

"There are cells in his hand that are still alive," Sakura says. "That's a miracle," she mumbles, more to herself than to Rika. "Okay, I need you to get some things for me," Sakura says, pulling away to face Rika.

The girl, about Sakura's age, nods, straightening up. "Yes ma'am. What can I do for you?"

"First," Sakura says, "how is your herbology?"

Rika gives Sakura a so-so gesture. "Ehh."

Sakura rolls her eyes. "Okay, find someone who knows herbs and anyone who's free and get them to help get what was on the list. And a lot of it," Sakura says, immediately listing off a bunch of herbs. "Can you remember those?"

Rika nods, running out of the tent. Sakura takes a moment to look back at the unmoving man on the table before following her out. Sakura brushes her pink hair from her face, looking around a bit lost.

"Can I help you find something?"

Sakura jumps and turns sharply to her right to see Tobirama standing there with his intense look as usual on his face.

"Tobirama-sama," Sakura says, putting a hand over her heart. "You scared me. Um, yes, actually. How well do you know this land around here? I'm looking for some herbs."

"Well enough," Tobirama says simply. "What are you looking for?" His facial expressions didn't change at all with Sakura's list. After a moment of her staring at him, waiting for a response, he orders, "Come with me." Then turns on his heel and begins walking.

Sakura obeys, following him away from the small, make-shift village. As they are walking, Sakura realized what his silence was about and when they found the first herb Sakura listed she knew she was right. He had taken that moment to strategically plan out where all the herbs she mentioned were and made a clear path to all of them that would eventually circle them back to the village.

"What are these for?" Tobirama asks once Sakura got the last herb on her list. "A remedy?"

Sakura shakes her head. "No, it's for me." At her words, Tobirama stopped and turned to her, staring down at her with intense red eyes.

"Explain."

Sakura blinks rapidly, wondering how much Tobirama knew about the herbs she gathered. Normally, she would assume nothing, but perhaps he learned a bit of herbology from Hashirama or something. The history books don't go into great detail with their lives

"Oh, sorry," Sakura says, looking down at the collection of gathered leaves, roots and flowers. "It's a chakra stimulant. It'll help me boost my chakra back up. I'm getting ready to attempt a very gutsy repair job on a burn victim and I'm going to need as much of my chakra returned as possible." Sakura pauses, looking down at the herbs. "Kami, I hope this is enough."

"A chakra stimulant recipe?" Tobirama says, seemingly interested.

Sakura nods, looking up at him. "Sure. I've made a bunch before. I've been told on multiple occasions that they taste like shit, but they are the best. Well, not this one. This one is just to help a bit. It's the simplest, least prep-work-needed recipe. It won't go from zero to a hundred or anything, but it'll be a nice boost." Sakura shrugs her shoulders. "I just need to mix this up, there should be enough for two," Sakura glances up at Tobirama. "Do you want one?"

He looks a little surprised. Then thoughtful. "Won't you need it?"

Sakura smiles. "Plan on using up a lot of your chakra?" she asks teasingly. But before she can answer - Sakura's not sure that she wants to know the answer for that - and continues, "No, I don't want to know. Anyway, I don't think so, but if I do, I can just get it back, right?" She smiles. "Come on, I'll show you how to make it, it's really easy and it could be helpful."

Sakura follows Tobirama, who didn't reject her offer of her showing him how to make the later-to-be-named soldier pills, back the village. Once they get to the medical tents she leads him to an empty one and shows him how to mix the ingredients together. Tobirama watched mutely with that intense look that he seems to always have on his face. Once she finishes she offers one to him.

"As I said before. It tastes horrible, but it'll help boost your chakra a bit. I suppose I should properly explain what it does, the herbs encourage chakra regrowth of your body. This type will only return somewhere from fifteen percent to forty-five percent depending on how good the herbs are, and those looked pretty good to me so it should be closer to the upper end of the margin. A nice kick if you suddenly need it," Sakura says, winking at him before holding it up a little bit higher for Tobirama to take.

He does, looking down at the small medical ball for a moment before looking back over at Sakura, holding the little ball in his hand. "This type? There is more?"

Sakura nods. "I'll tell you about them, sometime, if you like. They can be really useful in a pinch."

"Sakura-san?" Rika's voice can be heard outside the tent. "Has anyone seen Sakura-san?"

The pink haired girl puts a respectful distance between herself and the one-day Second Hokage. "I guess that's my cue. Are you going to come watch? If so, you'll have to stand in the corner, okay? It's a delicate issue and we'll need as much room as we can."

"Understood," Tobirama says. "But it sounds like your doing some form of major operation. Are you?"

Sakura nods, tucking a lock of pink hair behind her ear. "Yes. A Senju name Kaido was burned this morning by a fire style jutsu, yes?" Tobirama nods.

"He was badly burned. What are you going to do?" Then, as soon as the words left his mouth, his eyes widened. "You're going to heal him," he states more than asks, looking a mixture of disbelief and wonder.

Sakura shrugs. "I'm going to try. I've dealt with a case like this before... sort of."

Tobirama suddenly doesn't appear to be convinced. "Sort of?"

"The burn wasn't this extensive, but if I start working soon, then maybe I can save his arm," Sakura says, narrowing her eyes and looking out at the light filtering in through the parted tent flaps. "I need to go now. Feel free to come observe." Sakura slips passed him and out of the tent. "Rika, did you get everything?"

The Senju girl nods, rushing over to Sakura. "It's all in the tent, ma'am. What else do you need?"

"Anyone who can be spared, water, bowls and grinders for the herbs," Sakura says, following the taller girl toward Kaido's tent.

Rika smiles brightly, her hands shaking with excitement. "Got it all, ma'am. Even the people. Everyone who could be spared."

Sakura grins up at the blond. "Atta girl. Okay, well, let's get this started. Come along." Sakura heads for the tent, going inside where five other nurses have gathered, looking around at the herbs and the unmoving man on the table. Sakura glances over her shoulder to see that Tobirama didn't follow her, which was both a relief and a bit of a disappointment. It's flattering to be the center of attention for such a legendary shinobi, but it's also really scary too. All of her moves, her words, her looks are analyzed.

"What are we doing here?" Kana Uchiha, literally the last person Sakura wanted to see right now, asks, crossing her arms over her chest.

You to leave, Sakura thought bitterly, but didn't say that. She's smarter than that. So, she ignores the bitchy Uchiha and focuses on what they are here for. "I'm going to need one person, who's good at dealing and mixing herbs to come with me while I explain what I need."

"I suppose that's me," another Uchiha woman says, following Sakura over to the buckets of herbs. There was a bunch of them. Sakura is honestly impressed with whoever picked all of them. In such a short time, too. Sakura makes the first batch, adding all the ingredients into the bowl and adding water, which she was quick to note that they would need more of. Rika, gitty and ever eager to please, runs off to do just that.

"Can you do all that?" Sakura asks, looking at the Uchiha.

She nods. "I got it." She ties her hair back and sets to work.

"Once Rika returns with the water, I'm going to need someone to be running back and forth to make sure I've got a lot of water, so that'll be Rika. I need two people to hold down his legs and the left half of his body," Sakura says, straightening up from where she had crouched down to sort the herbs, and looks around at the remaining nurses. They look amongst themselves before Kana, much to Sakura's chagrin, and another Uchiha woman, step forward.

"That looks like it'll be us," Kana says, adjusting her weight from one leg to the other, staring at Sakura with half lidded eyes. Almost like she would rather be getting each of the nails on her toes and hands pulled than be here. Sakura wished she was too.

Sakura grabs the sample she made and a bowl of water, holding it to one of the two remaining Senju. "Make sure I have water by me at all times and you," Sakura looks over at the other Senju, "make sure that the medicine is by me too." Both of them nod. "Alright," Sakura says, tucking more hair behind her ear before making walking over to the prone man on the table. "Let us get started."

 

It was about an hour into the operation - if it can be called that - that Sakura realized that Tobirama had slipped into the tent quietly, as promised, but not alone. Hashirama and Madara were with him, all interested in seeing this supposed 'miracle'. Even some other nurses came in to observe or just offer their help. Sakura turned no one away and the observers were quiet for the most part, thankfully, so Sakura didn't really notice them.

"What is this suppose to do?" Kana asks, narrowing her eyes. "I see no difference in his skin."

Sakura looks up at her with a blank expression, wanting to reach over and backhand the snob bitch across the face, but manages to restrain herself. "Watch," Sakura growls, turning her focus back to the Senju. She has spent the better part of the hour thoroughly rubbing the remedy into his burnt flesh, and healing the residual chakra burns.

"Okay," Sakura says, more to herself than the people in the room. She reaches her hands into the bowl of water, using her chakra to grab hold of the water and pull it out, emptying the bowl and places it over the edge of the burn on his arm. She looks at Kana, who's holding down Kaido's left side, and the other Uchiha woman who was at his feet. "You two get ready. Even sedated, he'll need to be held down. The pain may pull him from his sedation." The other Uchiha woman nods while Kana sighs, but obeys.

Sakura pushes the chakra and water into the burns slowly. Kaido's body jerks and a groan of pain slips through his clenched teeth. Sakura smiles, pleased.

"What is it, Sakura-san?" Rika asks, by Sakura's shoulder.

"He feels pain," Sakura says simply, focusing intently on the wound.

"Sadist," Kana mutters under her breath, probably not intending for Sakura to hear.

That irks Sakura, making her glare at the woman across from her. "Obviously you know nothing about medical arts, because if you did, you would know that that means that the pain receptors in his shoulder is still working. My sadism only extends to patients who don't listen to me about taking care of themselves and nurses that enjoy back talking me while I'm trying to help someone," Sakura says, staring at Kana. "Before I get too far into this, I might as well make something clear. You have two options. Either you shut down the attitude while I'm operating on a highly sensitive case so I can focus, or you continue to be a condescending bitch, but do it outside, those are your options."

Sakura looks down at Kaido, not caring about her answer. Her focus has to be on Kaito. She owes him that. In a weird way. He's part of one of the founding clans of her home village, she has to try and save his life. Or, in Kaido's case, his arm. But for a shinobi, that is their life. So Sakura supposed it was the same thing.

She tunes out the rest of the world and focuses solely on Kaido, slowly working the water and healing chakra into his arm, focusing on healing the damage of everything. All the muscles, skin, veins and arteries, and chakra points. One of the other nurses that came in moves closer when Sakura quickly glanced up in her direction.

"I'm suppose to do what, again?" she asks, nervously.

"Guide the chakra into his arm and out. I've left a tiny piece of the vein closed so that the blood won't circulate into this arm yet. I need you to move the chakra so that the skin starts coming to life," Sakura says, looking back down at Kaito.

"Yes, ma'am," she says slowly, letting her hands hover of Sakura's. "Are you sure this is going to work?"

"What's your name?" Sakura asks, looking up at her.

She seems surprised by Sakura's question. "Oh, um, Miya Senju, ma'am."

"Miya," Sakura says, "do you know Kaido?" She nods, mutely, not knowing what that had to do with anything. "Then as both medical shinobi and the people that are working to save his arm, we have to believe that it will. If we don't believe that it will work, than why in the world would we expect him to? This is his life that we are dealing with. A shinobi's hand is their life. We owe it to everyone and anyone as people in general to do what we can to help. It's the job we've chosen."

Miya nods, looking a little more confident. Her hands steady over Sakura's. "I'm ready."

"Here we go," Sakura says, pulling her hands back. She can feel the room shift inwards to get a better look.

"Kami," Kana gasps, eyes wide looking down at the pink flesh beneath Sakura's fingers. "It worked." There is more gasps and murmurs of amazement.

Sakura shakes her head, trying to force her hair from her face. She deposits the bad water back into the bowl and the woman rushes off to get the next one ready. Sakura takes this moment to throw her head back and shake her hair behind her head before focusing again. She accepts the next bowl of water placed next to her, placing her hands into it and pulling the water out to continue the process.

Three hours. It takes three more hours for Sakura to work her way all the way down to the hand, healing his fingers. Sakura took the soldier pill an hour ago and can already feel it wearing off. Thankfully she timed it right and hopefully there won't be any sudden issues that she'll have no chakra to deal with. Sakura pulls her hands away, depositing the last of the used water, before bringing her hands back up to his shoulder. The pained look on Kaido's face faded a while ago, either he got used to the pain or passed out again due to the pain.

Miya pulls her hands away so Sakura has access to his entire arm. She uses her shoulder to wipe away collected sweat on her brow. Sakura opens up his veins fully and begins to lead it through his arm, closing her eyes to concentrate. Slowly, but surely, she leads it down his arm, to his finger tips and then back up his arm again, making sure that the blood is clean. Then she puts a hand over his heart, counting to sixty quietly, still not opening her eyes, to make sure no dirty blood got to his heart before opening her eyes and looking down at Kaido.

She moves her hands over his temples and pulls him slowly to consciousness. He opens his eyes slowly and looks around, half drugged. He blinks slowly, barely able to keep his eyes open. He mumbles something incoherent.

Sakura reaches across him and grabs his left hand. "Kaido-san, can you hear me?" She asks softly, watching his face intently.

He nods his head, minutely. Once again mumbling something that Sakura couldn't hear.

"I need you to try and squeeze your left hand for me as hard as you can. Can you do that for me, Kaido-san?" she asks. His hand twitches at first before closing slowly around hers, giving it a little squeeze before relaxing again. She pulls her hand back and moves it over to his other hand and grabbing it. "And the other hand, Kaido-san?"

He opens his eyes a bit, looking around, half seeing. Sakura leans in close over his face so he can focus on her face. Her pink hair hangs in the air between them, a bit of her long bangs tickle the side of his face, making the corner of his lips curl up a bit, eyes drooping closed again.

"Kaido-san, can you squeeze my other hand?" Sakura asks softly, looking down at the Senju beneath her. "Kaido-san?"

"Are you an angel?" Kaido asks, his voice is slurred as he slips closer to slumber again.

"If I say yes, will you squeeze my hand?" Sakura asks softly, getting a better grip on his new pink hand. The Senju smiles faintly, probably only half listening.

"Yes..." He says softly, opening his eyes for a moment before they slip closed again.

"Then yes," Sakura says, shaking her head slowly, trying not to blush about this. It's not the time. "Now, squeeze please."

Sakura pulls back a bit to look down at his hand, pink with new skin, completely unblemished like a new born's. Sakura's hand is small and pale wrapped as much as it can around the Senju's. His fingers twitch a bit before starting to kind of curl around around Sakura's, trying to do as she asked, but is unable to manage even a weak fist, just the minute curling of the fingers.

"Can you feel the heat of my hand?" Sakura asks softly. Kaido hums deep in his throat, nodding his head a little.

"You have small hands," he murmurs.

Sakura rolls her eyes, scoffing playfully, pulling back a bit to straighten up. "I know. I got midgit hands, there is no need to point it out. Not all women are beautiful amazons like Uchiha and Senju women."

"Sorry," Kaido says, smiling faintly. He didn't sound all that sorry, which was fine, because Sakura wasn't all that angry anyway.

"Don't worry about it," Sakura says dismissively. She pulls her hand from his, bringing both of them to the sides of Kaido's head and gently nudges him back into unconsciousness with her chakra. "Rest for now. We can talk later."

Sakura waits until his breathing has leveled out before sending healing chakra to her hands and running them up and down his arms, making sure she didn't miss anything. Sakura turns to the buckets of herbs and kneels down, making one last remedy. She mixes it up and adds a bit of water to makes it more cream-like and slowly massages it into the new skin on Kaido's arm. She makes sure she doesn't miss an inch of the affected area; the crook of his arm, between his fingers. Sakura was thorough and was thankful that no one tried to speak to her yet so she could continue to focus.

"Someone grab me some wrapping. The skin is going to be sensitive for a while we are going to want to protect it from the sun as much as possible for the next couple of days," Sakura says. She's so used to just explaining herself that the words just slipped out. Rika gave her the wrapping, looking like she's practically glowing with pride. "Thank you," Sakura says, smiling at the excited Senju before turning back to Kaido and begins wrapping up his fingers, then his hand, wrist, arm then shoulder.

Sakura looks over at Kana. "Do you think you can support his weight?"

If Kana wanted to give Sakura any lip, she was too shocked to do it. She wrapped Kaido's arm around her shoulders and then reached her free arm behind him to hold up his upper body, looking surprised. Sakura makes quick work on wrapping his chest up too to add support and get the entirety of his shoulder protected by the white tape. Sakura helps lower him back onto the table, supporting his head, before pulling back to look at him.

"Alright, I've done all that can be done for now," Sakura says wiping some sweat from her brow. She pulls her hair up a bit and fans the back of her neck, wishing that they were in the conditioned air of the hospital she's so used to. Konoha's heat can be unforgiving. Truly. "As far as I can tell there is no lasting damage. He'll need to go through extensive rehabilitation for his right arm but I see no foreseeable issues," Sakura says, letting her hair back down. "Let him rest. And when he wakes up, get some good food in his belly, he'll need it to start regaining his strength. I need to go now."

Sakura turns around and walks out of the tent, keeping her posture straight and poised. Not really knowing where else to go, Sakura heads for the mountain that will one day be adorning the faces of the future Hokage. With what remains of her chakra, Sakura climbs up to the top and sits on the smooth surface, looking out over the growing village. It's only been a few days and the village is already starting to grow into... well... a village. It's kind of amazing watching the pieces of the village falling into place. Watching the village become what it will be, is kind of strange. And awesome too.

With her feet dangling over the side, she lays down backwards. Looking up at the dark night sky, watching the stars twinkle through the thick clouds. It's starting to cool down now. The nights are only going to get cooler as winter draws closer and closer. The Land of Fire's winters are short, cold and with hardly any snow most of the time. The rock beneath her is cold to the touch, seeping into the back of her thin kimono.

But Sakura doesn't mind, slipping her eyes closed, just listening to the noises of the night. She lays her hands onto her stomach, using the heat of her core to warm her cooling hands. Sakura's not sure how long she was laying there before she felt the presences right on top of her. She opens her eyes to see Hashirama bent over at the waist, looking down at her, his long dark hair slipping over his shoulders to dangle in the space between them.

"Sakura," Hashirama says, eyes twinkling in the darkness, "you are amazing!"

Sakura blinks a few times, mind in a bit of a fog. She must have dozed off a bit. "Oh? What did I do?"

Hashirama makes a face at her words. "Please don't tell me you did that entire thing while unconscious. I don't think many egos will survive that one," he says teasingly.

"Oh," Sakura says, sitting up slowly. Hashirama straightens up too, still smiling. "No, I was awake. It's just no big deal."

Hashirama crouches down, tilting his head to the side. "How can you say that? I've never seen anything like that before! The way you used both herbs and medical ninjutsu, that was amazing! You have to tell me how you did that. Was it something you learned in your village?" He asks, crossing his arms over his knees.

Sakura nods. "It's a little bit of my own knowledge coupled with remedies taught to me by my master."

"Your master must have been truly amazing," Hashirama says, eyes widen.

Sakura smiles, nodding slowly. "She is. Or... was..." Sakura didn't fail to notice that whenever she spoke about her home, more often than not she spoke as if it was still there. None of them have probably mentioned it out of respect for Sakura's anonymous fallen village. In a way, that felt wrong. Sakura knows that she has to lie to them, or at least stretch the truth as much as possible.

Sakura looks over at Tobirama who was at her opposite side, just staring down at her with that same intensity that he seems to always have on his face. Sakura waggles her fingers in greeting toward him and was pleasantly unsurprised when he just stared back at her. The clouds in the sky part and the area lights up. Sakura turns her head toward the light, feeling a painful churn in her belly to look passed Hashirama to see Madara, bathed in the moonlight, staring at her with intense eyes not unlike Tobirama's gaze.

The moon dyes his hair a moon-light gray and casting shadows across his face. The only thing that could make the situation worse would be the bright red that accommodates the sharingan.

Sakura scrambles to her feet, looking up at the full moon glaring down at her. In her mind's eye, she can see Madara's silhouette against the bright full moon in the sky. Obito's version of the moon-eye plan that threw Sakura and Naruto into the strange alternate universe where everything was backwards, flashes onto the moon, making Sakura's knees tremble.

Sakura shakes her head, looking down at the weathered stone, wrapping her arms around herself. "I don't care if we talk, but can we talk somewhere inside?" Sakura asks, turning to look over at the village realizing just how close she is to the edge again.

"Are you okay?" Hashirama asks, leaning over so that his face could block her view of the village. Sakura jumps, blushing a bit at his closeness. He was so much like Naruto, no personal space. That's not so much a bad thing, Sakura decides.

"Yes," Sakura says, rubbing up and down her arms, trying to create friction and warm herself. "I just have a really bad irrational fear..." at two identical intense looks and one inquisitive look, Sakura looks away, "...of the moon. I'm scared of the full moon." It feels so embarrassing to say that in front of people, especially in front of the person who's one of the main reasons that Sakura has such a fear. "Don't laugh, okay? I forgot about the moon for a while and just came up here impulsively. Can we please go down now? I'm so stupid and I think I'm panicking a little bit."

Sakura hated the rapid beating of her heart and her inability to look up at the moon, wishing the clouds would just float back over the moon again for her.

"It's okay," Hashirama says kindly, putting a hand on Sakura's shoulder. "Everyone has fears. There's no need to panic. Let's go down and talk, that'll make you feel better, yes?"

Sakura nods, feeling a bit relieved. "Thank you, Hashirama-sama, and I'm sorry. If you're worried about Kaido, it's okay, he'll be fine."

"I'm not worried," Hashirama says, smiling. "I was watching the whole time, so don't think that. I just want the four of us to sit down and talk about some important things. But perhaps tonight is not the night. Why don't we walk you..." he squints, looking at Sakura embarrassed, suddenly. "Okay, so how about a proper place to live?"

Sakura's mind, now having something to focus on, hones in on it. "That's a good idea. That room needs to be opened up so someone like Kaido can be moved in there. It's definitely a better accommodations for someone in his position. Better protection from the sun and don't get me started on how it feels to just have a bed instead of a table beneath you." Sakura began rattling on and on about the proper way patients like Kaido should be treated. She mentions ideas about a hospital that would better suited for the injured. Talking about helping Sakura's patients often pull her from any dark place her mind may travel.

Hashirama nods, listening intently, leading her down the mountain with Tobirama and Madara following.


	5. Suggestion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: So sorry for the wait! I just sort of figured out the next couple of chapters and I am too excited to wait to upload this! Nothing too interesting in this chapter, sorry, but I think I'm going to have some fun with the ones that will follow! Thanks for all of your kind words so far! Let me know what you think! Enjoy! 
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing!
> 
> Warnings: Nothing much, maybe language. And a bit about women's underclothing, nothing graphic. XD
> 
> Word Count: 6,245

"Please allow me this, Lord Hashirama. A fair fight between myself and the girl. We were both kind of out of it the first time."

Hashirama raises his eyebrows, staring at the Senju in front of him. "You want to battle Sakura, Ryo?"

"Yes, sir," Ryo says, straightening his posture in order to look as professional as possible, keeping his chin up.

Hashirama shakes his head, looking over at Tobirama, who was sitting beside him. "Well, obviously that's not something I can just approve of. What will this battle prove? You said that you met her aside the riverbed, right? And she beat down yourself and Heggin?"

Ryo nods. "Yes, sir. We had just returned from the western front, packing up the stuff before returning. She was just there out of nowhere. I mean..." he sighs, fighting the urge to run his hand through his hair. "Don't get me wrong, my lord. I've been watching and listening and she sounds like a good kid, but as you know, I think battle is were we learn the most about someone. I'm not suggesting we battle to the death, my lord," he adds quickly when Hashirama got a look on his face that suggested he was about to decline again, "just another chance to try and learn something that words can't convey as well," Ryo says slowly, looking as though he was silently hoping that he didn't insult Hashirama and Tobirama by talking about the pink haired girl.

Tobirama's eyes flicker to the door. "Hashirama," he says sternly right as there was a knock at the door.

"Come in," Hashirama calls, looking passed Ryo to see the door open and the pink haired girl in question poke her head in.

"Hey," she says. "Sorry, I didn't mean to ease drop. Salma told me you wanted to speak to me."

"Sakura," Hashirama says, waving his hand for her to enter the room. She obeys, closing the door behind her and walking into the room to stand next to Ryo. "So you heard that?" Hashirama asks, suddenly embarrassed. "I'm sorry."

Ryo looks down, narrowing his eyes, more annoyed with himself than anything else. Upset that his clan leader was apologizing on his behalf.

Sakura waves her hand in dismissal. "No, don't worry. I figured this would happen. In fact, I was sure it would have happened sooner. I am a shinobi, Hashirama-sama. I know how to do battle. I can fight one on one, I don't mind and it's not insulting to me that he wants to fight. If you are okay with it, Hashirama-sama, we can have that fight." Sakura glances over at Ryo. "Don't be upset, okay? No feelings are hurt. And no one is offended or anything." Ryo nods a bit begrudgingly.

Hashirama's eyes flickered between the two of them with a strange look on his face, as if mentally trying to decide something. "I... can't decide now, you two. I have to talk with Tobirama and Madara about this. We just got out of war, I'm not sure promoting in-fighting is such a good idea." He reaches up to rub the back of his head, forehead wrinkled with internal conflict.

"Yes, my lord," Ryo says surely, although one side glance at him and Sakura can tell he's unhappy. Probably wishing that he never brought this up in the first place.

Sakura understands that it is a fragile time right now and Hashirama is right to fear that battles between Uchiha and Senju (even though the people involved are a Senju and a Haruno). This type of peace is still delicate and people are still feeling out the boundaries. It's understandable that Hashirama would be so hesitant about just allowing there to be battles from one side or another.

"I'm not here to change your mind, Hashirama-sama, but may I suggest something?" Sakura asks.

Hashirama nods tiredly, dropping his hand onto his lap. "You may." It's obvious, moreso today than the days before, to Sakura that this is starting to wear on Hashirama. He doesn't seem put off by any of their peace, it just seems like without structure and help, it's starting to ware the First Hokage a bit ragged. Sakura hopes that she can somehow help.

"Instead of just throwing two people together and deciding that it's some kind of bad blood match, it could actually be beneficial if you made a spectacle out of it, invite friendly competition. No-kill matches and games, maybe prizes or something to build camaraderie. Do things, like battles, by pairing up two people who wouldn't normally be together," Sakura says simply, thinking back to the game the Leaf played in Sakura's past. She shrugs her shoulders. "You want to draw people to this alliance. I think publically showing people that it's working can benefit, but let's be honest, I don't really know much about this sort of thing. Just saying. No pressure."

Hashirama hums under his breath, nodding slowly, looking a little more lively with ideas running around in his head. "That's a really good idea. Tobi, Madara and I will have to talk. Thank you, Sakura-chan."

Sakura smiles a bit. She's starting to notice, whenever he calls her 'Sakura-chan' it's when he's pleased or excited about what she's said or done. Which is nice, at least. Surprisingly, the First Hokage is not that hard to read.

Ryo bows respectfully. "Thank you for listening to me, my Lords. I shall depart now." He pauses a brief moment, long enough for Sakura to notice, before he turns to her. "Sakura-san."

Sakura bows respectfully in return, feeling bad that ultimately her quick acts were what put them into this situation in the first place. If she had just took a moment to try and analyze the situation, perhaps everything would have turned out differently. Keep that in mind for the future, Sakura, her inner voice whispers, you never know when you might need it.

"Ryo-san," Sakura says before straightening up once more.

Hashirama scribbles something down on the scroll in front of him before smiling kindly up at his fellow clansmen. "Thank you, Ryo. We'll talk later, alright?"

"Hai, my lord." Ryo backs out of the room and closes the door to the meeting room quietly behind himself.

Sakura, who twisted around to watch Ryo leave, turns back to face Hashirama and Tobirama. Hashirama was scribbling something down on the scroll in front of him again while Tobirama is staring at him with the same intense look in his eyes that he has had on his face ever since Sakura first met him. Sakura knew that the Second Hokage was a serious man, but she never imagined he would be this intense all the time.

"You wanted to speak with me, Hashirama-sama?" Sakura asks again, finally turning her gaze from Tobirama to his older brother.

"Yes, Sakura," Hashirama says, stretching his feet for a moment, rolling his ankles until they crack before folding them beneath himself again. "Sit for a moment so that we can talk." Sakura obeys, sitting at the end of the table where she sat before, noting that either the table was new or Hashirama fixed the damage she caused it, before looking back up at him.

"Yes, Hashirama-sama?" Sakura asks, after a straight thirty seconds of silence between them. The two brothers just stared at her, while she shifted uncomfortably beneath their gazes.

After another fifteen second pause - she's not sure why she's counting them, perhaps it's going to become a nervous habit - following Sakura's words, Hashirama finally scoots the scroll away from him and crosses his hands neatly on the table. "Alright, Sakura, I've got a question for you and I want a serious answer. Don't feel pressured to answer one way or another, alright?"

Sakura shifts uncomfortably in her seat, straightening up in worry. "Okay..."

Hashirama laughs, noticing Sakura's sudden worry. "No, sorry. It's nothing bad. I was just wondering if you would be willing to take on two apprentices."

Sakura stares at him blankly before holding up two fingers. "Two?"

He nods. "Yes. Two."

Sakura blinks a few times, feeling the tenseness in her shoulders relax a bit. "I'll start out by saying that I don't mind," Sakura says, looking between the two brothers, noting Madara's absence, "but two is kind of a strange number. Can I ask why two?"

"One Uchiha and one Senju," Tobirama says simply. At Sakura's blank look in return, he adds, "Things are still a little tense between us and the Uchiha. Until things settle down, we are trying to give both sides opportunities equally."

Sakura raises her eyebrows. "Well, I suppose that makes sense. As I said, I don't mind teaching people." A pause as Sakura glances around the room before hesitantly asking, more for curiosity than anything, and hoping that this isn't somehow overstepping her boundaries. "May I ask where Madara-sama is? He's usually here. It's a little strange not seeing him. I suppose it doesn't matter either way... I... don't really know why I'm asking other than curiosity, feel free to not answer," Sakura blabs, mentally berating herself. The last thing she wants to do is give anyone the wrong impression.

Whoever those people are that she doesn't want to give the wrong impressions to and even what those impressions may be, Sakura does not know. And she doesn't really want to delve too deeply into her psyche to figure it out.

Hashirama sighs dramatically, making Tobirama roll his eyes. "I was thinking the same thing, Sakura-chan. Unfortunately there was a little scuffle within the Uchiha compound about a half hour ago between a couple of the members and Madara had to step out and deal with it." He props his elbow up on the table in front of him and rests his chin on his lightly curled fingers, looking lazily around the room. "I wonder when he'll be back."

"Please control your lack of enthusiasm at being alone in my presence, brother," Tobirama says dryly.

Hashirama blinks a few times before turning his level brown eyed gaze to his younger, studying his face for a moment. Tobirama stares back with a slightly annoyed expression. Hashirama finally smiles goofily. It was the kind of toothy smile where his lips pulled back tight to show all of his teeth, his eyes shut tightly and crinkles appeared around the twin brown orbs. That look was reminiscent of Naruto's smile. Naruto's eyes didn't crinkle as much but other than that, it was identical and it hurt Sakura's heart regardless.

"Aw, Tobirama, are you lonely when Aniki doesn't pay attention to you?" He asks teasingly, letting out a little laugh afterword. Sakura presses her lips together tightly, worried what may happen if she's caught giggling at fiery younger Senju brother's expense.

Tobirama glares, more for show than actual anger, Sakura notes while looking between the two. "You wish, Hashirama. My only peaceful moments in the day always magically occur whilst your attention is drawn away from me."

Hashirama pouts. "You are so mean, Tobirama. Seriously, all I do is love you and this is how you treat me." He gives Tobirama big puppy brown eyes, feigning hurt to which the other man seems unaffected by.

"My apologies, brother," Tobirama says simply, sounding anything but.

Sakura smiles a little to herself. It's kind of strange to see such legendary shinobi that she read all about acting so normal. As brothers, Tobirama and Hashirama aren't always on the same page. They are capable of joking around with one another with little teases here and there. Such normal things that Sakura would expect to see in her time, just appears strange now. She can recall being back in school learning about the two of them. Hashirama was the brilliant man behind the unification of the clans and with his best friend - and one time arch rival - Madara Uchiha and his little brother Tobirama - later to be named the Second Hokage - founded the village she lived in.

Lots of things about their accomplishments, but really nothing about them on such a personal level.

Sakura spent a great deal of time this morning laying in the borrowed bed in the clinic, when she should have been getting up and healing the injured, thinking to herself about what she was going to do. For the moment she was content with having her attention diverted to taking care of the hurt Uchiha and Senju but eventually that number is going to run out or at least dim down enough to where she's not needed. When that happens, Sakura hadn't the slightest clue on what to do. For now, she finds a bit of comfort in knowing that her free time will be diverted once more to teaching two apprentices a bit of her 'miracles'.

But just like before, Sakura doesn't perceive that lasting forever and it just brings her back to now. While the village is still in the process of building enough homes to house the two clans that already live here, eventually they will begin making it look like a village. Perhaps Sakura just has to wait until a library is built and then maybe she'll be able to get her hands on space-time ninjutsu to learn more about it, but that's running under the assumption that they would have anything for Sakura to read and beyond even that: if they will even let her read anything if they have it.

She tried to recall the moments leading up to her awakening on the riverbed, but all she can get is fragments of memories. Flashes of out-of-context images and noises like screams and cries and people barking out orders. In the back of Sakura's mind sometimes she can pick out voices she recognizes. Some words are said by herself while others are Naruto and Sasuke and even Kakashi. There is even a word or two from Madara and Black Zetsu.

But when Sakura tries to focus in on those voices, discern more about they - herself included - are saying, her head begins to hurt and it draws forth memories of times that didn't pertain to the war. Her time as Lady Tsunade's student. Meeting Kakashi and forming Team 7. Joining Iruka's class. The bedtime stories her dad used to read to her up until she was ten years old. Meeting Ino.

Sakura shakes the thoughts away, not wanting to tank her own mood again. She adjusts her weight a bit. Her feet are falling asleep. She wiggles her toes to try and get the blood flow by to them.

"So," she says, drawing the attention of the two males in the room, trying to ignore the pins and needles in her feet, "who am I going to be training?"

"Ah," Hashirama says, pleased. His earlier bout depression gone once again. "We've been talking about it, Tobirama and myself, about the Senju and we thought that it would be beneficial if you worked alongside someone you seem to have a good relations with who has shown an interest in learning from you."

Sakura raises an eyebrow. "Who is it?"

It's Tobirama who answers. "Salma Senju."

Sakura perks up at that. "Salma? Really? Awesome." A pause, then, "And the Uchiha?" Please don't be Kana. Anyone but Kana.

"We spoke to Madara about it, but he was still debating on who it should be before he was called away. But you should hopefully learn who it is by the end of the day, and if not: early tomorrow. Is that okay?"

The pink haired medic nods. "Sure. Is that your indirect way of asking me to start their training right away?" She arches her eyebrow higher at that, teasingly. While she was being joking on the outside, on the inside, she was screaming that it had better not be Kana. She rubbed Sakura the wrong way as the pink haired girl is sure she somehow rubs the elegant but bitchy Uchiha in a similar way.

Hashirama grins sheepishly. "Caught me," he admits, then gives Sakura a more level look. "In all honesty, Sakura, you've surprised me. I apologize that while your first impression wasn't exactly the most stunning, and I mean that in the kindest way possible," he adds that last bit quickly. Sakura waves her hand dismissively. If she could, she'd be able to wipe that embarrassing excuse for a first impression out of the minds of everyone that was there and go back and redo it in a bit more of a dignified way.

"I get what you mean," Sakura says.

"Good, but as I was saying," Hashirama continues, adjusting himself again, stretching out his legs, rubbing his left thigh as if there was some sort of cramp there before crossing his legs under the table and resting both elbows and forearms on the table. A quick glance over at Tobirama showed the white haired man was once again looking out the window behind Hashirama, feeling the area out with his chakra for dangers before pulling it back and returning his attention back to the table. Sakura had to wonder if the Second was even aware he was sensing the area or if it was just a conditioned response from years of war.

"You surprised me. Er, all three of us, if I can speak on Tobi's and Madara's behalf," Hashirama says.

"How so?" Sakura asks, folding her hands onto her lap.

"Your medical abilities, for starters," Hashirama says simply. "You are capable of doing things that I could only dream of being able to accomplish as if it were nothing. While I hear your bedside manners leaves a bit to be desired," he says, smiling to show that he's not mad. "Such things can be over looked. You were able to heal internal injuries with ease as well as heal bones with deft precision and most of that was things I heard about from others. But I was in the room with you yesterday when you dealt with Kaido." He doesn't go into detail but Sakura understands what he's saying.

"I had a very good master," Sakura says. "A lot of the things I'm able to do today are because of her teachings."

Hashirama nods slowly, smiling faintly. "Well then, I suppose we have you and your master to thank for all of your help." Sakura blushes, feeling weird about being complemented by the First-freaking-Hokage.

"Thank you..." Sakura murmurs, not at all minding if she was heard or not.

"What's her name?" Hashirama asks after a quick pause.

Sakura looks up, surprised. "Who? My master's?" Hashirama nods.

Sakura takes a moment to debate on whether or not it was safe to tell him. She was his granddaughter after all. But at the same time, it was just a first name. There are tons of people with the same names out there in the world. This could be just another one of those. Sakura sends a silent prayer to Kami, praying that this doesn't somehow prevent Lady Tsunade from becoming Lady Tsunade.

Finally, Sakura looks up at Hashirama and says, "Tsunade."

Hashirama blinks a few times, taking in the name. "Tsunade... Tsunade..." Hashirama says, testing out the name, as if committing it to memory. "I really like that name," he finally says and Sakura could almost laugh at the irony. "I heard that name a long time ago and liked it. If I ever have a daughter, I would love to name her that." Hashirama has a thoughtful look on his face.

If Sakura recalled correctly, Hashirama ended up having two sons. His eldest son got married and had a daughter, Tsunade. Sakura has to wonder if Hashirama had a hand in naming Sakura's future master. Somehow hearing that he is going to give her master the name that she ultimately has in the future puts Sakura a bit at ease. At least she doesn't have to worry about that.

"You heard the name before?" Tobirama says, turning to Hashirama. "I wonder, perhaps are they the same person?"

Hashirama looks as though the thought hadn't crossed his mind. "Perhaps," Hashirama says to the white haired water specialist before looking over at Sakura. "Do you think it could be, Sakura?"

I'm certain it's not, Sakura thinks but wisely says instead, "I guess. I don't know."

"Curious," Hashirama says, stroking his chin.

"Indeed," Tobirama says, turning is head back toward the window and feeling out with his chakra.

 

Sakura stands before her new home with wide eyes. It was nothing too large. It was all one level with everything she would need. A kitchen, living area, bathroom, bedroom and guest room. It was built traditionally for the time period. All the rooms were connected by a walkway on the outside perimeter of the house, mostly in-closed with the just the backyard portion left open. It reminded Sakura of clan main households. Like the Hyuga's. She can remember having a sleepover with Ino and Tenten at Hinata's house and mentioning it to the white eyed girl.

Hashirama wipes the sweat from his brow. "How is it?" He asks once Sakura steps onto the front porch after doing a quick walk through the house.

"It's wonderful, Hashirama-sama. But you didn't have to make it all so spacious. I would have been okay with a single bedroom-"

Hashirama holds up a hand before she can keep going. He waits until the words have died in Sakura's throat before saying, "I'm glad you feel that way. So you should be so happy with having more space. Take it as my thanks for everything you've done so far."

Sakura wanted to be that modest person that could continuously insist that she can live the most basic of lifestyles, but it was ultimately very flattering to Sakura that he was willing to go the extra mile for her comfort. Just for doing things that she was going to do regardless of a reward. She'll find things to put in the extra space, Sakura just knows it. All she has to do is channel her inner Ino and go shopping whenever she gets a steady income.

Which reminds Sakura that while she has enough money to buy the necessities, such a luxury like that won't last forever. But perhaps bringing that up now would be inconsiderate and kind of a bitch thing to point out. So, she'll just keep these things to herself for a while.

"Thank you, Hashirama-sama," Sakura says, bowing politely. Hashirama opens his mouth but is cut off by another voice.

"Sakura!"

The pink haired girl looks around until her eyes land on the approaching Senju woman. Tobirama, who stood back so that Hashirama had enough room to perform, turns to look over his shoulder at the voice.

"Salma," Sakura says, eyes lowering to the bundle in her arms as she approaches. "Oh! Is that my stuff?" Sakura had sort of lost hope that she was going to get her things back. There wasn't anything extremely vital, and while she would have liked her things back, she didn't need them... kind of. Perhaps it was more that she was worried that she would get shanked if she asked for her stuff back.

Salma walks over to Sakura, holding up her things for Sakura to take. "Yes. Sorry we didn't give it back sooner." She smiles kindly when Sakura took her things. All of her weapons pouches wrapped up in a large, dark blue cloth similar color to her chunin attire. Sakura unravels the cloth to see that it is her chunin pants with her shirt, now cleanly mended around the once-ripped sleeves. Same with the bottom of her pant legs.

"Salma, did you fix these?" Sakura asks, looking over at the ponytailed girl.

The brown haired girl reaches up and runs her fingers through her long brown locks that rest over her left shoulder, blushing deeply. "I did. I'm so sorry if that was presumptuous of me," she says, avoiding eye contact with Sakura. "I just thought that-"

Sakura drops down onto the dirt in front of the tall Senju woman, wrapping her arms around the slightly older woman. She stiffens in Sakura's grasp for a moment before relaxing and returning the hug.

"I was going to burn my clothes anyway," Sakura says softly, closing her eyes. "I thought I was going to be able to part with them, but seeing them now... I'm so glad that I didn't. Thank you, Salma. I really mean it. Thank you." Sakura pulls back and smiles up at her. "Thank you, Salma."

The long brown haired woman blushes a bit more, smiling. "You're welcome, Sakura. I'm just glad that I didn't overstep my boundaries."

Sakura shakes her head, stepping back up onto the porch, pulling a scroll carrying her normal clothes from home. She turns back to look over at the three Senju. "I'll be right back. I'm going to change into my usual attire. I like the yukatas and kimono, but it's easier to move in my normal clothes. Be right back."

Sakura heads inside, going into the empty bedroom and quickly stripping from the black yukata that she was healing in and removes her usual clothes from the scroll and change into them. She wraps up her chest, seeing her underwear and bra was folded up and stuffed into her medical pouch, thankfully. If she unraveled her clothes and those fell out in front of the First and Second Hokage, Sakura would probably die of embarrassment. Salma's foresight is appreciated.

Sakura seals up her bra and old chunin garbs, before pulling on her red, zip up shirt, black spandex pants, pink battle skirt and elbow warmers and boots. Sakura pauses at the sight of her Konoha headband. Somewhere along the way, perhaps on the battlefield, Sakura lost her 'ninja' headband. As much as she wanted to put the red cloth and metal onto the top of her head, where it belongs, she knows that she can't and, with a heavy heart, seals that back up too.

The pink haired girl equips her weapons pouches, putting her clothing scroll back into her pouch before heading back out of her new house. "Alright, I'm done," Sakura says, walking down to the three Senju.

Salma was nodding to something Hashirama was saying. "I will, my lord."

"Perhaps ask if anyone else around here wants to go with, huh?" Hashirama asks, folding his arms behind his back. "I think it would be nice if more people had time to bond, don't you think Tobi-" his eyes widen a bit at the sight of Sakura. "Wow."

Tobirama, who's back was to Sakura, turns to look at her. Intense red eyes widen slightly. Salma, who was between the two brothers, peaks around Tobirama to look at Sakura.

"Sakura!" Salma says, eyes wide. She steps closer, looking Sakura up and down. "You look... wonderful!"

Sakura glances down at her clothes, wondering what could be so wonderful about them. "Uh, thanks?" Sakura says, looking back up at Salma.

"Those clothes..." Salma steps closer, shaking her head, as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing, "they make you appear so much older!"

Sakura narrows her eyes at the other woman's words. "What do you mean by that?"

Salma blinks confused. "What?"

"It makes me look older?" Sakura asks suspiciously. "How? How old do I look?"

Salma suddenly looks uneasy. "Um, how old are you, Sakura?"

"How old do you think I am, Salma?" Sakura asks, narrowing her eyes even more.

"Don't get mad," Salma says, holding her hands up in a very familiar surrendering pose people give Sakura when she starts to glare at them. She's not that scary, right?

Sakura crosses her arms over her chest. "How old, Salma?"

Salma looks as though she is in physical pain. "At first... in that big yukata... you looked a little... young. Like... maybe..." she mumbles something that Sakura was too far away to catch. She steps closer, tilting her left ear toward the Senju woman.

"Maybe... what was that, Salma?" Sakura asks.

"Twelve?" Salma squeaks, flinching.

Sakura blanches at that. "Are you joking? What about you two?" Sakura looks up at the two men in the group only to let out a noise of distress at both of them avoiding eye contact. "You thought I was twelve?" Sakura squawks. She throws her hands into the air. "What the hell? Why is it so hard for people to see that I'm a woman? Good lord!"

Salma runs her fingers through her hair. "I'm sorry, Sakura. How old are you?"

Sakura stares back at her with a bland look on her face. "I'm seventeen."

If they were expecting something from her, that wasn't it. All three of them stare back at her, surprised, much to Sakura's chagrin. Now would be the time that Sakura wished that she could turn on her heel and stomp away, but she had no where to go. And like hell was she going to go into the empty house behind her and stare at the wood while her temper settles down.

Was it so out of the realm of possibility for Sakura to be a young woman? Sakura is really starting to hate this time period. Had times changed so much? Sakura had no idea.

"Where is your husband?" Salma asks, eyebrows pulling together.

Sakura blinks at the randomness of the question. "Husband? I'm not married." She flushes. She's never even dated anyone, but like hell was she going to point that out. Apparently, times had changed a lot.

Salma tilts her head. "You aren't? Did something happen to him?"

"No," Sakura says slowly, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable. "I've never been married."

The idea seemed so out of this world to Salma, her eyes were wide and she stepped closer until she was right in front of Sakura. "Never? Why? Is there something wrong with you?" As soon as the words left her lips, Salma throws her hands over her mouth. "Oh, Sakura, I am so sorry! That wasn't meant to come out that way! Oh, please forgive me!" Sakura didn't miss Tobirama, reaching up to scratch his throat, looking away while Hashirama physically flinches at Salma's words like they hurt him, behind the long haired Senju woman.

Sakura grumbles under her breath, shrugging her shoulders. "Forget about it. Boys back in my village weren't exactly throwing themselves at my feet for my hand," Sakura says, annoyed. "I know I keep saying it to make others feel better, but seriously, just because I'm not an amazon like Senju and Uchiha women, doesn't mean I don't have feelings too," she pouts.

Salma shakes her head, reaching out to take Sakura's hands. "I don't believe that! You are too beautiful! And no boy has asked for your hand? Are things truly so different in your village? I was married when I was thirteen. I can't believe how different two places can be," Salma says, eyes wide.

Sakura's eyes nearly bulge from her head. "Thirteen! No way!" Sakura was barely six months into her shinobi career when she turned thirteen. To be married already? That's crazy!

The brown haired girl nods. "It's true."

"Where is you husband now?" Sakura asks, weirded out. Salma seriously couldn't be that much older than her. And to have been married longer than Sakura's been a shinobi, is crazy to the pink haired girl.

Salma smiles sadly. "He's gone now," she says softly.

Sakura could hit herself. "Oh, Salma, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to..."

Salma shakes her head. "It's alright. It was almost two years ago. War does that, sometimes," she says softly, shrugging her shoulders. Although she's trying to brush it off like she was over it, but Sakura can see there is still pain in her eyes. Sakura knew about arranged marriages and was suspicious that this was one of those cases, but Sakura finds it hard to believe that the kind and caring Senju wouldn't have eventually fallen in love with her spouse.

The green eyed medic squeezes Salma's hand in what she hopes to be a comforting manner. "I'm sorry, Salma. Do you have any... um...?" She makes a vague gesture.

The brown haired Senju woman shakes her head. "Children? No. I don't think I can have kids. We tried for a long time but I was never able to become pregnant." She shrugs her shoulders again, still trying to appear as if she was okay, but the pain in her eyes tells Sakura that thinking about that brings fresh pain. "It's over now. Um, Lord Hashirama wanted us to run to the nearest town so that we could pick up a few things that could help you start feeling at home."

It was a poor transition into something else, but Sakura was willing to accept it. In a way, she owed Salma that much. The woman was practically taking care of her since she woke up. It was the least she could do.

Some time during Sakura and Salma's conversation Madara arrived, having pulled both Senju brothers aside. The Uchiha's eyebrows were pulled tightly together, annoyed, and there was a scowl on his face.

"Fucking idiots," Madara mutters as Sakura and Salma walks closer to their group.

"Madara-sama," Salma says, looking a little bit better now that she has something else to focus on, "are you alright? Is there anything I can do for you?"

Madara glares at Salma in annoyance at whatever he was just finished dealing with rather that the Senju woman, lips pressing tightly together. "No," he says, voice a bit strained. "Thank you."

"You don't look thankful," Sakura mutters, not realizing she was speaking. "You look more constipated than anything." As soon as the words left her lips, Sakura flushes deeply in embarrassment. "Dear Kami, I am so sorry!"

Salma stares at Sakura in complete shock, silently saying goodbye to Sakura with her eyes. Tobirama looks greatly amused while Hashirama doubled over, laughing so loud he could barely hold himself up. Madara looked back at Sakura looking greatly displeased.

"That was great!" Hashirama gasps between breaths. "And it's so true!" He was bent over at the waist, bobbing up and down with the force of his laughter. Madara reaches out, putting his hand on the back of Hashirama's head, holding it in place so that he can't straighten up. "No, Madara! Stop, I'm sorry!" Hashirama calls out, trying to reach back and dislodge the other man's hand.

"I'm sorry, Madara-sama," Sakura says, waving her hands around in front of her. "I've obviously lost my mind. I'm so sorry."

Madara grunts, reaching up with his free hand to rub the crease between his eyes. "It doesn't matter. Are you ready to finish our meeting, Hashirama?"

"Yes," Hashirama says, strained. "Do you mind if I be let up now?"

Madara sighs, releasing the future First Hokage. He straightens up, rubbing his back in pain, muttering about pain.

"Let's go," Madara mutters, looking more annoyed than angry now. He glances around at them one more time, eyes sliding over Sakura before moving on before flying back to her, looking her up and down slowly, eyebrows raising before he turns sharply and walks away, shaking his head as if to clear it.

"We'd best go, Sakura, Salma," Hashirama says, bending back until his back cracks before sighing in relief. He glances over at Salma. "Remember what I said." He waggles his finger at her in a feign attempt to be stern.

Salma nods. "I will. Good day, my lords."

"Thanks again for the home, Hashirama-sama!" Sakura calls after the two departing brothers. He waves his hand, not turning back around. "I'm sorry again, Madara-sama! Bye Tobirama-sama!" She calls. She doesn't check to see if they heard her before turning to Salma. "So, what are we doing?"

Salma turns to look at Sakura, folding her hands neatly in front of her. "To the nearest village to pick up things for your home and some things Hashirama-sama wants for the compound. But first, let's go and see if anyone else wishes to come along," Salma says, heading back toward the Senju compound following obediently behind her.


	6. To be ashamed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Over one hundred comments? Thank you everyone so much! I love hearing everything you have to say! I love your speculation and what you liked about this part of that one. This chapter was a little hard to write and I don't really like some of the language used here. It's nothing too horrible, just a bit of a heads up! Let me know what you all think! Thanks again! Enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing!
> 
> Warnings: Nothing much, maybe language. 
> 
> Word Count: 6,957

A few other Senju women - three - and two tall little brothers, who were bullied into coming along, came with Sakura and Salma, and two Uchiha women and one man came as well. Sakura walked in the middle with Salma to her left and the Senju on her left while the Uchiha walked on Sakura's right. Everyone was content with talking within their clan, sending looks occasionally at the other side only to quickly look away when someone from the other side looked back.

Oh, and they stared at Sakura too. Which was extremely embarrassing. No one said anything to her, but everyone just stared. As she walked through the two compounds with Salma, who was a bit uncomfortable in the Uchiha compound but managed to look composed enough to be respectful, people just stared at Sakura like she was some alien. Truthfully, she spent little time around the bulk of the two clans, keeping mostly to the medical tents, but if she knew people would be looking at her like that, she would have insisted on waiting for Salma and whoever decided to come along, somewhere else. Save herself from the awkwardness of their gazes. She was the only one there who wasn't part of one clan or the other.

Sakura didn't think she would have minded being the only Haruno there. But walking through the two compounds today, she wished that there were dozens of Harunos walking around too so she wouldn't feel so out of place.

They make it to the nearest town and shop around, somehow managing to stay as a big group. People gave them curious looks. Uchiha and Senju walking about, shopping together. Sakura could hear people whispering about the rumors that the war was in fact over. Among other things like: Hashirama killed Madara and took the Uchiha in as a protectorate clan. Or, that this 'peace' is just a charade that won't last for too long. Things of the like.

Every bad word coming out of the people's mouths made Sakura want to crack the village in half with her heel and dare they say such horrible things about the founders of her village to her face. Somehow sensing Sakura's killing intent, Salma made a show of staying close and leading Sakura around, trying to keep her busy and not ease dropping on what everyone was saying.

"Bastards," Sakura grumbles, letting Salma drag her over to a shopping stall.

"It's okay," Salma says softly, picking through the fabric in front of her. "It's alright to let them think what they will. We know what's really happening. The peace is real and through our unity will we make the rest of the world believe it irrefutably, not our strength of arm," Salma says sagely. Linking Sakura's elbow with her own to keep her close. Normally Sakura would be annoyed that someone would go that far just to keep her in line, but it was probably for the best. Sakura doesn't exactly have the most control of her anger.

"Salma, would you like to spend the night at my new place tonight?" Sakura asks, hoping that she managed to make an actual friend. She liked the Senju well enough and as childish as it seems, she also wasn't sure she was ready to go to bed that night in an empty, unfamiliar home.

The brown haired girl perks up in surprise, then smiles. "Yes! I'd love to," she says, a fresh pep to her step. The two girls, still arm and arm, continued to work their way through the village, a little more excitement for the night time. Sakura is relieved that Salma was still young enough to be on board with sleep overs. Perhaps Salma knew Sakura's not-so-secretive ulterior motive and felt bad. But either way, Sakura's glad she accepted.

Once they returned to the soon-to-be Leaf Village, Salma helped Sakura drop her things off before Sakura helped the Salma and the rest of the Senju haul blankets and clothes and medical things like bandages and creams and a wide assortment of random, miscellaneous things for the people of the compound. Sakura waited for Salma to pack an overnight bag, wish her immediate family, which was her husband's brother, his wife and their two children, and heading back to Sakura's house. They spent a great portion of time moving some furniture in - Sakura mostly moved the furniture, being the stronger of the two and more mobile in her shorts - while Salma made some dinner from ingredients she brought over from her house.

Over dinner, they talked about all sorts of things, mostly Salma. She grew up as the youngest of two children. Her father died in the war and her mother grew sick when she was fifteen and just passed away the previous winter. Her brother is married and is currently trying to have children. She had been living with her husband's older brother and his family since her mother passed and she was left all alone with hardly a way to provide for herself. She aids her brother-in-law's wife, who was pregnant at the time with their second child, with the other kid while she was on bed rest and has integrated into part of that family.

Her husband was eighteen when she married him at thirteen. His name was Seiichio and his elder brother is Keiichio. Keiichio's wife is Rin and eldest child, six year old daughter, is Keke and their youngest is a boy named Kenchio. Salma likes it there with them, she feels like part of the family and they treat her real nice. But she admitted that it was hard to see Keiichio, who reminded her so much of Seiichio. They apparently looked and acted very similarly. Salma liked the familial connection there, but was terribly lonely.

"Since you've come around, Sakura, things have been a little less lonely," Salma says kindly. "Thank you for having me over tonight. I think Keiichio and Rin could use some time with just the four of them, you know? I've been a burden on them for a long time."

Sakura nods, smoothing out her bedspread next to Salmas before sitting down on the eloquent red, white, green and black swirling designed comforter. Once they finished dinner and cleaned the dishes, they moved to what Sakura has deemed for her room and set up their beds for the night. Sakura turns to face the young woman as she sits down on hers.

"I'm not sure how procedure is on this. And stop me if this is insensitive to ask, but what do you do now? Will you ever remarry?" Sakura asks slowly, watching the long haired woman closely to see if she is offended by Sakura's words.

Salma shrugs her shoulders, picking at a loose thread in the blanket. "I can marry again. I just..." she sighs, "...don't know if I'm ready. I have to really like him and I want Keiichio to like him too. He's... you know, the closest thing I've got to Seiichio... his opinion means a lot to me."

Sakura nods slowly. "I can understand that. But can I overstep my boundaries a little bit here?" Sakura asks, knowing that she's a little intrusive when it comes to people's private lives. Definitely something she picked up from Naruto, but at least she has enough curtsy to ask first as opposed to Naruto's method of just barging in head-long without thinking about the other person's feelings. That counts for something, right?

"Sure," Salma says, finally looking up at Sakura.

"I understand that this Keiichio guy is important to you. but keep in mind that it's your life. I'm not saying piss on the guy, but just know that if you love someone, everyone else's opinions shouldn't matter, you know?"

Salma nods a bit, smiling faintly, but not truly convinced. "Yes, I understand. I'll consider it, most definitely. But for now, there is no one interesting to me." A moment's pause before she looks up at Sakura with her own bright green eyes. "Tell me, Sakura, is there anybody out there that has your attention?"

The pink haired medic blushes deeply. "N-No!" Sakura's heart is suddenly pounding and in her mind's eye she can see a certain Uchiha boy that has been the object of her affections for a very long time.

The Senju woman smiles playfully, reaching up to the back of her neck and pulling the white ribbon from her hair, throwing the long waist length brown mop over her shoulder. She runs long, slightly tanned fingers through her hair to try and work out any knots. "I see..." she says with mirth, giving Sakura a knowing look. "I suppose we should head to bed now?"

Sakura, relieved by the distraction, nods quickly. "Yep. We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow." That's when training would start.

"Goodnight, Sakura," Salma says, lowering herself onto her bed.

"Goodnight, Salma," Sakura whispers back, leaning forward and blowing out the candle between their beds, bathing the room in the faint glow of the moon filtering in through the window on the opposite side of Salma, as far away from Sakura as she can be without being awkwardly pressed against the far wall. Sakura lays her head down and closes her eyes, thinking about the visit to the town.

Sakura didn't know who was more spoken about; the Senju and Uchiha alliance or her. Even more people would just glance over at her, their faces twisting up strangely, before looking away. She originally thought it was because she was walking around with people who appear to be the talk of the town, but now she's not so sure. She's used to people staring because of her bright pink hair, but this is becoming a little too much.

Sakura didn't really know why she was suddenly the center of attention, but she didn't like it. Not when she didn't know, and not the next day when Kana was kind enough to enlighten her as to why.

 

"Everyone thinks you're a whore," Kana says, right in the middle of the make shift market. Sakura turns around very slowly, recognizing the snide Uchiha's voice, her words slowly processing. Kana's voice has this supernatural ability to silence the area even when speaking in a level tone. Sakura has never heard a room - only in this case it was just a wide open area with a few stalls and about thirty people - get so quiet in her entire life.

"Kana!" Sakura's Uchiha apprentice, the one Madara brought to her after she returned from the next town the day prior, says sharply. "Have you lost your mind?"

Kana crosses her arms over her chest, not seeming to mind that she now has a crowd of Uchiha and Senju peaking at them in curiosity. Sakura is still processing the rude woman's words, trying to decide if she should be embarrassed, hurt or pissed.

"What?" Sakura finally whispers, eyebrows pulling together tightly. "What did you say?"

Kana tilts her head to the side, long dark blue hair sliding over her shoulder. "It's the talk of the town since your slutty turn of attire yesterday," she says simply, each word like a dagger between Sakura's ribs, twisting, twisting, twisting deeper. Sakura wraps her arms around her stomach. She glances around the growing crowd, seeing the looks in their eyes. Kana isn't lying. Not really.

"Dammit Kana!" Sakura's apprentice snaps.

"I'm sorry, Aya," Kana says, sounding anything but sympathetic, level gaze locked on Sakura, "but someone has got to tell you the truth."

Salma shakes her head, putting a hand on Sakura's arm. "No one is thinking that!" She says, putting a hand on her chest. "Why would you say something so mean?"

Kana stares at her blankly. "I'm sorry if what I said is 'mean' by Senju standards," Kana says, doing air quotes around 'mean', "but if she is going to represent our village than she needs to know." She shrugs her shoulders.

"Are you kidding me?" Sakura finally whispers, shaking her head. "Can we go through one conversation without it becoming some kind of conflict?"

Kana sighs, as if she was dealing with a child which sent a spike of anger through Sakura's gut. "There is no conflict here. I just thought I should tell you what everyone here was too chicken to say to your face." Somehow, Sakura managed to keep control over her eyes so that they don't roam around in the crowd. If she looked and saw judgmental looks on the two founding clans of her home village, thinking she was some kind of whore, Sakura's not too confident that she would be able to keep her eyes from watering.

Sakura has been called many hurtful things, especially as a child, but nothing like this. While those things were painful to hear back then, she can now take them in stride and maybe with some anger, but she had grown a thick enough skin so where those things stopped really hurting. Sai calling her ugly was a painful stab in the gut the first time, but that too was something that she became callous to.

But this is different. She's never been called this before. Nothing like this. She's never been so brutally taken down by a simple word. Whore. Slut. Such nasty words Sakura would never use against someone. Other than perhaps as a joke with Ino. But in this time period, such a thing meant a lot more than a joke. And the fact that, if what Kana is saying is true, everyone thinks she's a whore or a slut then...

"What is going on?" Hashirama asks, elbowing his way to the front of the crowd. Someone must have run off to tell him that something was going on.

Salma spins around to the Senju leader. "Oh, my lord..." she seemed to be at a loss of words, but Sakura's attention wasn't on her or the growing crowd.

Sakura runs her hands through her head, chest tight. The image of judgmental Uchiha and Senju eyes glaring down at her burns into the back of her mind. She drops her hands to her sides, trying to fight back the pain in her chest.

"Look," Sakura wraps her arms around herself, feeling the need to do something to keep her hands busy. "I just..." she lets out a long sigh. "Well, thanks, I guess, whatever." She prayed that her voice didn't sound as paper thin as she felt it did.

Just as she's about to turn away, Kana calls out, "Does everyone in your village dress like that?"

Sakura freezes. "What are you trying to say?" Sakura asks dangerously, looking over at the Uchiha woman sharply. Kana seems to notice the shift in Sakura's voice and face.

"From what I've learned, such... behaviors usually don't just pop up out of nowhere. You know the saying? It takes a village..?" Kana trails off, shrugging her shoulders, but large, dark eyes are locked onto Sakura's face. She didn't have to finish. Sakura understood perfectly what she was trying to say. And it didn't settle well in the pit of her stomach.

"Kana," Madara growls, voice making the anxious silence that was there just moments ago turn into a cold, deadly one. The dark haired woman freezes, keeping her chin down a bit and glancing over at him, giving Sakura the chance to quickly close the distance between herself and Kana, decking the girl as hard as she could in the jaw without breaking it. There was a loud gasp from the crowd and people backed away, not wanting to be next should Sakura's sudden assault continue.

Kana stumbles back a few feet before falling onto her butt, eyes wide and watering. Without her sharingan there was no way she could have seen that coming. Her hands are covering her jaw where Sakura's sure it's starting to swell. Sakura stands about a foot from her, hands trembling at her side, trying to contain her anger. In her mind, she couldn't believe that this was the legendary Uchiha family. That such a nasty person could come from the regal clan she spent all her life learning about.

"You can call me whatever you want, but the moment that you say something, no, think something about my village, I will fucking kill you. Do you understand me, bitch?" Sakura snarls, glaring down at the Uchiha woman. "Next time I'll punch you so hard your teeth go flying down your throat. You don't know my village. You don't know my people. You don't have the kami dammed right to say shit about any of them, do you hear me?" Sakura clenches her fists tighter, trying to reign in her rage. Then, this chilling calmness settles over her, her hands relax and she can lift her head a bit more. "All my life I've heard the stories of the great and honorable Uchiha family. Well, you know what? You are a piss-poor example of that. I don't know what you thought you would get from this, but if it was for me to hate you, you got it. I fucking hate you."

Sakura releases her threatening stance, the pain still white hot in her chest, but somehow being contained. It flares against the inside of her chest, like it's about to punch a hole through the bone, but doesn't have the strength to yet. She half turns away again before stopping.

"I've seen how you look at the Senju," Sakura says, looking down at the ground, unable to hold eye contact. "How you look at me. Like we are all somehow less than you." She turns molten green orbs down to the flustered Uchiha woman. "I'll tell you something: this is a revolution, honey," she makes grand gesture around them, "and if you stay stuck in the past, thinking the stars shine out of your ass, there sure as hell won't be a place for you in the future." Having said her peace - but mostly not trusting herself not to just beat the shit out of Kana - Sakura turns and stomps away from the crowd, losing her sight behind the tears.

"Allow this to be a lesson," Sakura says softly, more to herself than anyone else, "if you are truly aiming to unite the clans under one banner - one family - you're off to one hell of a start and nasty first impression. This is the last things I have left to connect to my village..." she says softly, eyebrows pulling together tightly at the realization of just how true that was, "I suppose it was wrong of me to assume people coming from war would be able to be a bit more forthcoming about loss."

Her words were scathing, and perhaps uncalled for, but Sakura didn't care. She was hurt and angry and in her mind's eye, all she could see were the amazing, lovely people she left behind. The people that she would rather be with right now, more than anything. To hear them being bad mouthed, it killed Sakura and cast light on her view of the village she thought she knew. This wasn't her village. This was the steps taken to make her village. This place was nothing like she imagined and it let her down greatly.

Sakura didn't know who she was more ashamed of; the two founding families, or herself. In her mind and in all the books she had ever read about the two clans always gave her this regal, yet accepting nature, moreso in the Senju, but the Uchiha were able to adapt, and yet these people didn't fit the image in her head at all. They were so much like the people of her time, when she was a young girl - thankfully, they all for the most part became very accepting as she grew older. Judgmental, secretive. Those that didn't fit the social norm, didn't fit at all.

She should have expected this, given the time period, but for some reason, this all came as a shock to her - in the worst way possible. The Uchiha and Senju of today turned out to be not-so different of the people of the future. While social norms will shifted vastly in the next eighty years, societal backstabbing will not. All Sakura can keep thinking about is how she shouldn't be surprised, that she shouldn't be hurt by this. By one person!

But it wasn't one person. They all must have thought it. And what she had to wonder even more, was if the three founders thought that of her as well. Now their strange attitudes from the prior day make more sense. But don't hurt any less.

"Sakura," Salma says softly and tries to reach for her as she passes but Sakura shakes her off, muttering a soft, "Not now, Salma" and keeps going.

Sakura raced away from the make-shift village, hating that it was high noon now and that she wouldn't have the cover of darkness to protect her. As much as she hated the moon, she would rather be hiding in it's dim glow rather than the bright light of the sun. Sakura had never been so thoroughly embarrassed before in her entire life. Or as pissed off. All of her emotions are just swirling around inside of her swinging her from one side of the spectrum to the other. She either wants to scream and cry or scream and break.

Whether it's break down or break Kana's face, Sakura doesn't know. But she is in enough control of herself to know that exploring it now, while it may make her feel a bit better presently, wouldn't in the long run.

She's not sure how far away she ran or how many times she slipped and fell only to get back up and keep going before she drops down to her knees in front of a large tree, resting her forehead against it. Her breaths come out sharp and deep. A painful stitch pulls at her sides, but it's easy to ignore. She takes a moment, trying to control herself, teetering between rage and pain.

For a split second, more powerful than before, rage reigns supreme and Sakura pulls back her fist and, filling it with her chakra, slams it hard into the tree, trying to release the tension that was coiled up inside of her like a snake. The bark of the tree gives under Sakura's strength. It shatters like glass, sending the splinters flying around her as the trunk snaps in half and begins to tip over the opposite way of Sakura. It groans loudly as it descends, hitting the ground hard when it lands. The tree manages to lay down flat but is trapped, wedged between a bunch of the trees.

Sakura staggers staring at the fallen over tree, straining her hearing to see if there was anything nearby. If there was any predators, the sound of that tree toppling over would have definitely scared them off.

Sakura jumps up onto the fallen trunk, letting her legs dangle off the side, putting her head in her hands. That little bout of anger managed to sate her a bit, but the hurt still welled up inside of her. She's not sure how long she just sat there, trying to think of anything that is the judgmental eyes of the Uchiha and Senju and the horrible words that Kana said about her. About future Konoha. Even though the Uchiha hadn't the slightest idea of what or where she was talking about, the words still stung and made Sakura want to rip out every pretty hair from Kana's head.

So there's that.

Sakura took that moment to cry. To let the pain and anger leave her through her tears. Her vision grew blurry and she felt the trembling sobs rack her body. For the moment, all she wanted was to cry. It had been too long of time since she's let herself do such a simple, human method of release. Since she began telling herself that tears were the enemy, she had been trying to keep them locked up safely behind anger and rage. But right now, she was too tired and stressed out and crying was making her feel better.

"Sakura."

The pink haired girl jumps, immediately shutting up, looking straight up at the man who spoke. Her watery green eyes widen slightly in surprise. "Madara-sama?" Her voice is husky and she quickly reaches up to wipe the tears from her face. She had to wonder how long he had been standing there, watching her snot all over herself.

The dark haired Uchiha walks toward the young medic, stopping a few feet in front of her and tilting his head to the side. The hair that usually covered one of his eyes, falls away to reveal it a bit. His posture is straight, otherwise, hands held limply at his sides. Sakura looks away, ashamed, unable to meet his eyes. She reached out to cover her knees with her hands subconsciously.

"Sakura," he says after almost a minute of silence, having noticed the girl's action to - in vain - cover a bit more of her skin, "I am here to apologize on behalf of Kana. Rest assured that she will be punished accordingly for her transgression." She could see in his eyes, a silent promise that he would wipe these last few moments of her weakness from his memory.

As much as she wanted to find a bit of happiness from that, she couldn't. She was happy that he wasn't going to make fun of her for crying like a baby over a few mean words, but she also didn't feel good about someone getting horrible punished because of her. Now, did she want Kana to get off scott-free for what she said? No, but she also believes that the good hit she gave the Uchiha on the jaw may have been enough. She says that now, because she feels bad for her harsh words, but when she sees Kana again, she may think differently.

"Thanks," Sakura mutters, running her hands through her pink hair just long enough to brush past her shoulders. "But, I don't want to think about that anymore. I'm sorry too. I was out of line as well. I shouldn't have just lumped everyone together like that just because one person pissed me off. So, me too. Sorry."

Madara stares at her with black, fathomless eyes. After a pregnant silence, he says, softly, albeit a bit strained, "All is forgiven. What you said wasn't completely untrue. We should have known better and while yes, it was unfair to lump us all together, we should be aware of the changing times. It truly is a revolution. Perhaps we needed an outsider to tell us what we were doing wrong."

Sakura shakes her head, not sure she understands. "What do you mean?"

"We talk about moving into the future, but we still live in the past," Madara says simply, straightening his head again and looking away, as if suddenly the forest was very interesting. "Saying that we're changing doesn't mean that we are. Even though we may not like it, we have to start heading for the future, no matter how much it tests our beliefs."

Sakura smiles faintly, finally understanding. "Some traditions of today, can't last into tomorrow," she says softly, nodding. After a moment's pause, she pats the tree trunk space next to her.

Madara's eyes follow the length of the tree all the way to the part of the trunk that's still in the ground. He blinks slowly; once, twice, thrice, before complying and lowering himself next to her. There is a long pause, where the two of them just sat there in silence. It's a little strange to Sakura having the Uchiha patriarch sitting beside her as if they were equals. She could feel the heat of his body next to hers. Her shoulder lining up just below his, but his legs nearly touching the forest floor where hers dangles.

"What the hell happened to this tree?" Madara asks after a long silence.

Sakura huffs out a laugh, shaking her head. "I punched it," she says, looking over at him from the corner of her eye.

Madara stares back at her with a look on his face, as if expecting her to suddenly start laughing and tell him that she was just kidding, but after two whole minutes of them just staring at each other he raises both of his eyebrows high up to his hairline. "No shit?" he finally asks.

Sakura smiles. "No shit."

Madara shakes his head, looking forward for a moment before looking back over at the remaining bit of the tree trunk still in the ground. He takes a few minutes to process what he's seeing, doing the mental calculations in his head trying to see if it's even possible to have been her before giving Sakura an incredulous look that she has to laugh at.

"You don't believe me?" She asks through her giggles, unable to believe the expression on the Uchiha's face. It just looks so natural and for some reason, that surprises her. And not in a bad way.

Madara shakes his head again. "No, I'm afraid that I do."

"Good," Sakura says more to fill the silence than anything else. It did little to help because they easily lapse into that silence, looking around the forest. She didn't want to ask, but it was either rip the band aid off or sit in this slowly growing uncomfortable silence, but she was deeply worried about his answer. "Is Hashirama-sama mad?" she asks softly, not looking at the Uchiha.

"Yes," Madara says, not sugar coating it at all. Sakura flinches, wondering if she's going to have to sleep outside tonight. She wouldn't be surprised if a large cherry blossom tree shaped like a middle finger grew out of the middle of her home if she dared return.

"Oh," Sakura says, cringing again at the image in her mind.

Madara looks at the side of Sakura's face, studying it closely. "But not at you," he finally says.

Sakura's head whips around to look at him with large eyes. "What? Why?" She blinks rapidly, wondering if he was just joking with her. It would be pretty painful if he was.

"Because Hashirama is a bleeding heart," Madara say simply. "He has this vision of how he wants the world fit into, and he gets upset when it doesn't fit. But I applaud him for putting his foot down here. He and I felt the same way. The point of this village is unite people with vast differences and make us one. It seems our clansmen have forgotten that. Worry not, it will be rectified," he says surely, narrowing his eyes slightly while staring forward.

Sakura runs her hands through her hair. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't want to be in the middle of something so scandalous." She bends over backwards over the stump, looking around at the world, upside down. After a few moments, Sakura grunts out, "This is really working out my abs."

"Try being parallel to the ground," Madara suggests. Sakura looks up at him, feeling the blood rush to her face. He's peaking down at her.

"Only if you join me," she says, wondering if he would. This is the first time they've spoken really. This is the first time they've been alone with Hashirama and Tobirama there. It was kind of strange how easy it was to talk to him. Is this truly the person Madara Uchiha was before he became... whatever he was in the future? It was hard to understand of something could change someone so much. It had to be something major.

Maybe he felt bad on behalf of his family and he felt he owed it to her, or perhaps he was just in an appeasing mood today, but he obliged. So Sakura and Madara both laid back, holding themselves parallel to the ground. After a moment of silence, Sakura looks over at Madara with raised eyebrows. "Doesn't it suck having hair that long? I mean, it's brushing the ground now..."

Madara looks over at her, working hard to keep his breathing equal. "I suppose I never noticed," he murmured, voice slightly strained. There is a short pause that follows before he speaks again. "Hashirama told me about your idea of a festival of sorts. Can you explain more?"

Sakura glares at him. "Yeah, sure, let me just hop right to that." She lets out a shuttering breath, feeling the strain in her stomach and thighs.

"A talented kunoichi like yourself should have no issues, I thought," Madara says simply, but Sakura could hear the goading under-tone to his words. He's hoping to rile her up.

Sakura rolls her eyes, tilting her head back forward. "I am," she says stubbornly, seeing Madara look forward - er up? - in the corner of her eye.

"I'm listening," he says softly. Normally Sakura would hear such words with a more pompous lilt to them, but when Madara said it, it was soft, honest. He was listening to all of her words. In some way, that was extremely flattering to have such a powerful man's full attention. And a lot intimidating. She had to speak carefully enough to not reveal anything important but too much or the young man will definitely know that she's holding details back and be even more suspicious than he already is.

So Sakura tells him about the games that Lady Tsunade had them play. Where everyone had these different colored jewels that fit the rank of the person wearing them. The higher the rank, the more the points. She couldn't really remember the points system that was used at the time so she made one up. Because it was the Shodaime that would eventually come up with the ranks, Sakura gave them descriptions rather than their titles. Young, inexperienced shinobi would have ribbons (since that's a lot easier to procure than crystals) that were yellow and be worth 10 points. More experienced Shinobi who's had real battle experience would have green ribbons worth 30 points. Shinobi with a ton of battle experience and high recommendations from their peers would have red ribbons worth 60 points.

"The last," Sakura grunts, teetering a bit, her stomach muscles getting tired. She takes a moment to steady herself before continuing, "The last would be up to yourself, Hashirama-sama and Tobirama-sama's discretion. Shinobi of your caliber, or close enough to be considered near unparalleled unless against one of you three, would be given the final ribbon, white, for 100 points. That would also include the three of you, if you wished to participate."

Sakura begins talking about how the battles would go, rules and regulations. There would have to be people willing to watch the matches and out of bound limits so that spectators could watch. She talked about how there could be two on two battles or one on one. She talked about how if two people took on one and won that they could either split the points in half or battle each other for the full points. And while she's talking, Sakura would glance over at the Uchiha to see his eyes closed, listening to her words and probably visualizing it in his head.

"What would the winner at the end get?" Madara asks. This is the first time he interrupted since she started. His eyes remained closed.

Sakura sighs, feeling herself bobbing up and down again. She has to force herself not to try and grab hold of the tree trunk to try and balance herself. She copies Madara instead, putting her hands onto her straining stomach, wondering if this was the kick she needed to get really nice, toned abs. If so, she might just commit to it. Well, after her stomach heals.

"That's up to you guys," Sakura grunts, feeling light headed. "Holy shit, I have to sit up or I'm going to pass out." Sakura pulls herself upright, her vision going black for a moment before clearing up. Madara follows a moment later, letting out a long, drawn out breath, cheeks slightly flushed from the strain, while Sakura probably looks like a tomato.

"Pretty good," Madara says, opening his eyes and looking over at Sakura. "You held yourself longer than I expected."

Sakura glares at him weakly. "Good lord, why did I think that was a good idea? That hurt. My head, stomach and legs." She reaches up and pushes her hair back into place, feeling the gentle pulsing in the back of her head.

Madara gives her this strange look. Not like his face is twisted weird or anything. It's got this weird glow to it. A soft, almost peaceful look on his face. The more she sees of Madara, the harder it is to believe eventually he will become this nasty, vengeful person of the future. He's a little stiff - or a lot stiff - but not unkind. He's just a little strange about it, like it doesn't come natural to him. If anything, it reminds Sakura of Neji. He turned out to be a kind person, he just wasn't so good at expressing it unless one knew what to look for.

Perhaps that is what Hashirama of the future saw of Madara. Sakura can understand that. At least moreso now than when she first met Madara.

"I like it," Madara says softly, turning away to stare at the forest. He spoke to lightly, Sakura hesitated a moment, wondering if he had actually spoken.

"You like it?" Sakura asks, hoping she wasn't just hearing things.

Madara blinks slowly, long, thin lashes brush against the tops of his cheeks. They were longer than Sasuke's lashes, but not as thick. They were like delicate butterfly wings. Sakura was kind of jealous of both Uchiha. It must be hard to be born with such good looks.

Madara his head once in affirmation. "I do. I suppose it will be a topic of discussion for later with the buffoon and his asshole little brother."

Sakura snorts, caught off guard by Madara's language in reference to the First and Second Hokage. And he said it with such a straight face too! Sakura hopes to one day be able to maintain such a poker face.

Madara's eyes soften a bit more, pleased to have made Sakura laugh as opposed to possibly insulting her. Sakura gets the impression that he doesn't speak freely like that often. His words, while straight laced, also had a bit of hesitancy to them, as if he was testing the waters with her. Seeing what he could get away with and study her reaction. Sakura was beginning to see what the First saw in Madara. The very human side of Madara.

"Madara-sama," Sakura says after a slight pause.

Madara looks away, staring straight ahead again. "Hm?"

"I'm sorry about what I said earlier-" Sakura tries to apologize again, now feeling really guilty for it.

"No you're not," Madara says sharply, looking over at Sakura with narrowed eyes. Shocking the girl with his sudden shift of attitude. "I find that once you hurt someone, their true emotions shine through. You were hurt and angry and you conveyed that well. People from both clans were speaking ill of you and you addressed that. Do not strip your words of their power by redacting them. Stand true to your words or say nothing at all."

Sakura stares at him with wide green eyes, not knowing what to say or think. This man was truly nothing like she expected. After almost a full minute of Sakura staring into Madara's pitch black eyes, silently contemplating his words, she nods, looking down at her dangling feet. "Then..." she says slowly, hoping she's not yelled at again, "I hope that we can all move past this and focus on the future."

With bated breath, Sakura can feel Madara's gaze at the side of her face for a long time, with analytical, dark eyes, before he looks down at his own feet, making circles in the dirt with the toe of his shoe. "I believe you."

Three simple words. Three simple words that laid heavily on Sakura's shoulders like the fallen tree and in her gut like three large stones.


	7. Yin and Yang Seals

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: So sorry for the wait, everyone! Things are hopefully going to start picking up soon. And in a few short chapters, a fondly thought of friend may have an appearance. XD Let me know what you think! Enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing!
> 
> Warnings: Nothing much, maybe language. 
> 
> Word Count: 5,514

There was a long pause between them until Sakura finally stood up, having scooted off the tree trunk to the forest floor. She smooths out the back of her pink battle skirt, before turning to Madara. "Thanks for the talk, Madara-sama, I really needed it."

Madara nods, pushing himself off the fallen trunk as well. "It's fine. Where are you going now?"

"Back to the village," Sakura says, running a hand through her hair, reluctant to do just that. "I promised Hashirama-sama that I was going to start Salma and Aya's training today. I'm a lot of things, but not a liar."

Madara tilts his head a bit to the side. "He will understand your reluctance to return. You don't have to force yourself," Madara says simply.

Sakura shakes her head, stretching her spine until she hears a few pressure relieving cracks, before relaxing again. She turns to look back at Madara, smiling as brightly as she can, even if it is a bit forced. But she channels her inner-Naruto and makes it as believable as humanly possible. "I know, but I won't go back on my word. I said I'll do it so I will."

Madara looks away from Sakura, but the corners of his lips turn up ever so slightly, as if pleased by her words. "Good," he murmurs, then looks back over at Sakura, face falling blank again. "Since I'm heading back as well, I can send the girls your way."

Sakura nods briskly. "That actually works in my favor. I was going to take them to the river anyway for the beginning of their lessons, so, if you don't mind...?"

"I'll let them know. Good day, Sakura," Madara says, walking passed her toward their slowly growing village.

Sakura bows at his retreating form. "Thank you, Madara-sama." She waits until he's gone, before she straightens up and turns toward the river. It's not the same one that she woke up in. This one is actually Konoha's main water supply. It's a lot bigger than the one Sakura awoke in and it's where Sakura is going to find the fish needed to the training.

From what she knows about Salma, the girl has a little medical experience from assisting in one area or another, but no official training. Her skills have variety but aren't stable enough to let her do field work. As for Aya, who's a little younger than Sakura, about fifteen, has no experience either way. She was one of the few girls that was battle trained but she hadn't participated in any major battles before the war ended. She apparently had amazing control over her fire nature which allowed her fire style jutsu to be extremely powerful, but she also held a secondary nature in water, which was also rare.

That surprised Sakura in how much it reminded her of Itachi Uchiha. She's a more distant cousin of Madara's branch, so that was supposedly very surprising.

Sakura sits down in front of the river, falling into her meditation stance and closing her eyes, letting her mind go blank as she takes in the world around her and starts gathering chakra and converting it to Yin chakra to place behind her forehead. She hadn't gathered nearly enough for it to make the jewel appear yet, but Sakura casts a small genjutsu over the area. The last thing she wants right now is for anyone to notice anything different about her and start asking questions. No doubt people will be more careful about what they say, but it still won't stop the questions.

Sakura will feel a lot better when her jewel is fully charged. She'll be okay with that ace in the hole.

And because it has become inevitable ever since Sakura started working to make her own seal like Tsunade, the nagging question that comes up whenever she starts meditating came back. Because the chakra that shinobi use every day is made up of an equal balance of Yin and Yang chakra, when she pulls the Yin part of her chakra out to put in her seal, is there something she can do about the Yang chakra?

She often thought about that but had little to no skill in sealing, just the bare minimum, and wouldn't know how to store the Yang chakra anywhere. She didn't know if it was somehow similar to Yin or if that was just naïve to think. Since Sakura's probably going to be here for a while, she should probably try and hone some of her skills more for when she returns. She'll have to see if she can mentally work her way through this little dilemma.

"Sakura?"

The pink haired girl pulls from her meditation to look over her shoulder at Salma and Aya. Both stand a few feet behind Sakura, shifting their weight on their feet apprehensively back and forth, as if half expecting Sakura to lash out and punch them too. She wouldn't blame them. She is kind of a loose cannon. Any sudden, or wrong move could set Sakura off.

"Hey girls, are you ready for training?" Sakura asks, turning back around to face the rushing water. Both of the girls inch forward, still a bit weary.

"Yes ma'am," both girls say at once.

Sakura straightens up, moving to stand. She walks out into the water and looks around, carefully, and with lightning fast reflexes, she reaches into the water and grabs out a fish. She pulls out a kunai and kills it, before tossing it onto shore and then repeating the process until she's caught and killed eleven fish in total. Five for each of the girls and one for Sakura before walking out of the knee length water.

She puts the kunai away and sits back down in her original spot, holding her own fish.

"Girls, sit on either side, take five fish each," Sakura orders, slipping into her meditative position, but places the fish in front of her knees. It flops around a bit. Aya and Salma obey, sitting at Sakura's sides. "Watch closely." Sakura puts her hands over the fishes body, sending healing chakra into it, healing the cut she made in it. Once the fish is healed, Sakura picks it up and throws it into the water. "I killed the other fish," Sakura says looking between the two girls. "Those we can take back to eat or something."

Both girls nod in agreement, setting to work right away. Sakura takes this time to continue her meditation, only stopping to help when the girls either don't start progressing after a few minutes or have questions for her. It's about mid-evening when Sakura finally stops them. Salma is progressing a bit further than Aya. But that was to be expected. Salma did originally have some idea of how a bit of medical ninjutsu worked. She was able to heal all five of the fishes simple cut wounds, so Sakura made the damage a little more extreme, easing the older Senju woman into more and more deadly wounds.

Keeping in mind that Sakura did kill those dish, merely because it's inhumane to cut them up and leave them alive. At least in Sakura's opinion. Even dead, Sakura is able to tell if they could survive from the healing, which they would have - if they healed them faster, but that was something that will come with time and experience.

Aya is starting to figure out how to heal, it's hard because her fire nature is mostly getting in the way and she ends up toasting the fish rather than heal it, much to her chagrin. But she's slowly starting to find her secondary water nature, which makes it easier for her to use healing ninjutsu. In a way, this is teaching Aya two skills; strengthening her control over her water nature and teaching her medical ninjutsu. Ultimately a win-win for Aya, no matter how much it's currently annoying her.

"You two can head on home for today. I'm going to stay and keep meditating," Sakura says, settling back into her meditating position.

"Do you want me to stay with you today, Sakura..?" Salma asks softly, running her fingers through her long brown hair over her left shoulder. "I don't mind..."

Sakura smiles at her. "It's okay. I'm only going to be meditating, so don't worry. You two return tomorrow, at dawn to continue training. See you then," she says, waving her hand around dismissively.

"Okay then," Salma says slowly. "See you tomorrow, Sakura."

"Bye, Sakura-san," Aya says, waving her hands in farewell.

"Bye girls," Sakura says, closing her eyes and relaxing her body for meditation, slowly converting her chakra to Yin chakra. She barely hears the two girls depart in her deep level of meditation. Her internal clock alerts her that about an hour and a half pass before she feels the presence of someone approaching her from behind. She opens her eyes and glances over her shoulder, tensing up slightly.

The sunburst array of orange, yellow and red skylight behind Tobirama casts a shadow on his face and hair, slightly discoloring it. He stops a foot behind Sakura, making note of her position.

"Meditating," he says, making it sound more like a statement than a question.

"Yeah," Sakura says, stretching out her legs, wiggling them around as they crack and pop. "Did... did Hashirama-sama ask you to talk to me?" She asks shyly, looking over at the running water, hoping it'll distract her from looking into Tobirama's intense red eyes.

"Hashirama?" Tobirama says, tilting his head slightly. "No, I haven't spoken to my brother at all today. I've been on patrol of the lands since morning. Why? Is there something I should talk to you about?" Tobirama asks suspiciously.

Sakura shrugs her shoulders a bit, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. "I'm not sure. There was a bit of... um, drama in the village today involving me. I spoke with Madara-sama earlier about it, but I sort of thought that Hashirama-sama would also come talk to me, but I suppose not. I'm sure you'll learn all about it when you return to the village."

There is a long pause. Sakura glances over at Tobirama from the corner of her eye to see that - yes - he was giving her an extra intense look than usual.

"Is it something I should be concerned about?" Tobirama asks.

"I can return to the village if that's what you're asking," Sakura says softly. "I'm out here less for punishment and more because I kind of don't want to return just yet."

The crease that formed between Tobirama's crimson eyes relaxes and smooths out. "I see. Can I ask what happened?"

Sakura shrugs her shoulders. "I don't really want to talk about it. But I hit that Uchiha Kana, woman. Like in the jaw. Pow, and she was down." Sakura smiles a bit when Tobirama huffs in amusement.

"She was definitely testing you while you were healing Kaido," he murmurs, lowering to the dirt next to Sakura. "It's about time you show her where she stands with you. And you already spoke with Madara about this?"

Sakura nods. "Kana... said some things that stepped over the line with me and so I hit her in the jaw. Madara-sama must have agreed with me. I just..." she sighs. "I just hope I didn't somehow make things worse. I know Madara-sama said I should own up to my own words, but it doesn't man I can't somehow regret them. And I suppose I do a bit. I said some uncalled for things, but I was hurt." Sakura rubs her forehead dejectedly. "Master always said I needed to have better control of my emotions. Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black, huh?" Sakura murmurs that last part to herself, rolling her eyes.

Tobirama tilts his head slightly. "That Tsunade woman, you spoke of earlier?"

Sakura nods. "That would be her."

"Brash, is she?" Tobirama murmurs.

Sakura huffs a bit, nodding again. "You can say that again. She's a lot like me. Or maybe I'm a lot like her. But she's a lot better than me in controlling herself. She knows what she wants and she's a lot more confident in herself." Sakura smiles faintly, remembering her beloved master's haughty attitude. Sakura really did love and appreciate the woman that helped make her into the shinobi, and the type of person, that she is to this day.

"I see," Tobirama says simply, looking down at the water, watching a fish jump out only to fall back in.

On a whim, Sakura looks over at Tobirama. "Tobirama-sama, may I ask you something?"

"Very well, but I may not answer," he says, not looking back at her.

For some reason, that makes her laugh. She's not sure why she's surprised by that. It seemed like such a Tobirama-like thing to say. "Do you know anything about Yang chakra?" She asks, mildly amused, smiling faintly over at the someday Second Hokage.

Tobirama seemed a bit surprised by that question, obviously not having expected it. "Hm, it's an area of study I have interest in. Why?"

"I want to try and create a seal that stores Yang chakra, but I'm not sure how it truly differs from Yin chakra. I mean..." Sakura sighs, running a hand through her hair. "I'm not explaining this well. I know the difference between the two but when sealing them in separate places, I wondered if there was anything different about the process."

Tobirama got that look about him that he seems to get every time his brilliant mind began working. "Hm. That is a very good question. While I don't know everything about the highly advanced studies of both Yin and Yang chakra, my elder brother knows a great deal about both of them too. If I can't help, then maybe he can."

Sakura could have slapped her face. Duh, she thought, of course Hashirama was well known for his control over Yin release. He's able to mix it with his wood style chakra that allows him to create wood from nothing. Same with Tobirama and his water style. Sakura hoped that the answer would be relatively simple and not so different than moving and manipulating Yin chakra.

Sakura barely knows the fundamentals of Yin chakra and next to nothing about Yang.

"Can I ask you for some advice about Yang chakra and seals?" Sakura asks politely.

Tobirama nods. "Yes, you may."

So, Sakura tells him about how she's separating her chakra and storing her Yin chakra into a seal - but not specifying for what reason or where the seal is - and the fact that she does next to nothing with Yang chakra. Sometimes she just leaves it in her body and she naturally recreates the Yin half, but then sometimes she just expels the chakra out. It makes Sakura feel weird to have more of one half of part of her chakra. Losing chakra is natural but having half of some of her chakra leaves her feeling extremely unbalanced. Like she's going to throw up.

Tobirama made a face at that which makes Sakura laugh.

"Sorry, a little too much information?" Sakura asks between giggles.

"No," Tobirama says, shaking his head. "It's just a bit strange how open you are. Most young ladies would say 'unwell' or 'uneasy' but you went straight to the nitty gritty of it."

Sakura stares at him with bright green eyes, unable to stop the large grin to keep spreading over her face more. "Is there someone here that's a little squeamish around throw up? Or even the thought of it?" Tobirama doesn't respond, just clears his throat a bit and avoids eye contact. Sakura laughs, bumping her shoulder with his. "So he does have a weakness!" Tobirama grunts, shaking his head and folding his legs neatly in front of him, cross legged.

"It's fine to expel the Yang half of your chakra. All the Yang half is just physical release of chakra," Tobirama explains, looking at the water, seemingly content with being lost in the specifics of chakra. Sakura listens quietly to his explanation. Sakura was an adept at medical chakra theory, making and understanding medical ninjutsu on the deepest levels, where Tobirama was a master at chakra theory and jutsu creation in general. It's because of him that so many different, powerful ninjutsu exist in the future.

All Sakura's life she learned about the impressive prowess of the First Hokage and all the wonderful miracles that he could do. He was a god among shinobi, unrivaled even to Sakura's day by normal humans and shinobi alike. But thinking back on it, there was a lot less known about Tobirama. Sakura knows some of the basics. He never married, is said to be a player, the younger brother of the First Hokage, held great mastery over his water style chakra, things of the like. People even mentioned how he was able to create a lot of jutsu but sitting there now, Sakura was really seeing jutsu ideas form in the Second's mind. And it's unreal.

"Based on the type of seal that you want to use, you can make a joint seal between the Yin and Yang chakra, but still manage to keep them separate so that you can have access to one or the other without affecting the other half of the seal," Tobirama murmurs, then narrows his eyes in thought. "No, that wouldn't work right. If you are thinking of using the Yang chakra to enhance physical parts of your body..."

Tobirama crosses his arms over his chest and looks up at the darkening sky, mumbling something to himself. He looks as though he's trying to see something in his head, multitudes of different outcomes for a single solution before he seems to find the most adequate answer to whatever he was trying to figure out.

He looks at Sakura with intense red eyes. "Yang chakra, while equal with Yin chakra, is considered less malleable. It's harder to mold on it own and harder to move. The reason you feel off kilter when you store up the Yin chakra and leave the Yang is because the energy is harder to contain but also acts like glue. It likes to stay in one place. The thing that allows it flow is the Yin aspect of it. With chakra control training, one can begin to strengthen the flexability of the Yang chakra while increasing the amount of Yin. Naturally out bodies will fill in the missing aspect. Did you know that?"

Sakura stares, wide eyed. "No... I mean, I knew that our bodies would replace the missing half without any detrimental affects..." she shakes her head, "but I didn't know that meditation did that to our chakra. I thought it just expanded the amount of chakra we had by either compressing the chakra or expanding the reserves. Chakra's amazing."

Tobirama nods in agreement. "That is a true statement. But if I'm thinking this through correctly, putting a seal in one place would, at most, enhance that single place. Whether it be a limb or your torso."

Sakura nods slowly, thinking about that closely. "So, you're saying a seal on all four limbs and then one on the main body? That would cover all the bases? Even my head? As a medical shinobi, I know how dangerous it is having uncontrolled chakra swirling around in the brain. The seal I have keeps the power in check, I know, but I'm not confident enough in my seal making skills to know if I was making a Yang seal that would be able to protect mind. So, what should I do?"

Tobirama reaches up and scratches the red paint (or whatever it is, Skaura didn't know) mark on his left cheek in thought. "I think... I think that it's fine either way. I can help you craft a simple seal that can do that, or you can just avoid that all together and just put the seal on the torso near your head so that when you activate it, it can flow to your head, but the energy isn't always stored there."

Sakura leans back on her hands and looks over at the water. "Like the back of the neck or throat area?" Sakura wasn't exactly a huge fan of riddling her body with seals, but she wanted this done right. If this was the route she was going to take, then it was going to be done in the best way it could.

Tobirama nods. "Probably. Let me think a bit more on this and I'll let you know."

Sakura didn't know what to say. It was honest curiosity on her part, but Tobirama seems to be deeply interested in the way this conversation headed. At this point, if Sakura had to guess, he appeared to be greatly interesting the mechanics of the manipulation of the Yin and Yang chakra. It reminded Sakura of herself. When she found something interesting in the medical field, different ideas on how to help people or cure poisons or other ailments, she becomes so focused on that, it's insane. So it makes her feel better knowing that she isn't the only person that becomes like that.

Plus, having Tobirama helping her is just two more added bonuses. One being that she can learn even more about this legendary warrior and the second being that it would most definitely be done a lot better with his help as opposed to if she had done it alone.

"It's getting dark out," Sakura says, pushing herself to her feet. "I think I've avoided the village enough for today. Thank you, Tobirama-sama. I wouldn't have been able to do this without you."

Tobirama stands as well, glancing down at Sakura with his usual intense gaze. "I'm not qualified to say whether you would be able to do this with or without me, but you are resourceful, Sakura, you'd have figured it out eventually."

Sakura's entire body tingles. Was this the first time Tobirama had addressed her by her name? Sakura couldn't remember. But for some reason if he had before, this time feels different. It's like they entered a strange, new stage in their relationship. They... they might be... be becoming... dare Sakura think it? They are becoming... allies? Two people working toward a mutual goal? Tobirama gets to learn the mechanics of her jutsu, while Sakura gets the jutsu.

"Thank you, Tobirama-sama," Sakura says, smiling up at the red eyed man.

"Come. Let us return to village," Tobirama says simply, turning toward where Sakura assumes is their home - she has faith in his direction skills, he's an actual sensor type - and starts walking. Sakura follows at his side. The return to the village is silent for the most part. It's only when the village comes into view that Tobirama spoke again, "Delegates from the Sarutobi and the Yamanaka clans will be coming to the village some time tomorrow. Whatever the issue is that you had with Kana will be resolved by tomorrow?"

Sakura shrugs her shoulders. "I think it was resolved today. I just..." Sakura shrugs her shoulders again. "I won't make an issue out of this, if that's what you're worried about. I won't do anything to jeopardize your building relations. I'll be out of the village for most of the day tomorrow anyway training Aya Uchiha and Salma."

Tobirama nods slowly. "Very well. Allow me to walk you home."

Without waiting for her response, he started off in the direction of Sakura's new home. "I can look after myself," Sakura says simply just to point it out. She's not at all offended that he's being a gentleman and assuring that she's getting home safe. It's more of a way of asking him why he's doing it.

Tobirama doesn't dispute her words. "My mother always taught my brothers and I that kunoichi like to be treated as kunoichi and ladies like to be treated as ladies. It's proper to learn when the woman that you are interacting with is to be treated like a kunoichi and when she is to be treated like a lady." He said the words so simply that it left Sakura a bit confused. She heard rumors that the Second Hokage was a ladies man and kind of flirtatious, but hearing him now, seeing him now, it leaves Sakura wondering how true that really is.

"Your mother sounds like a lovely woman," Sakura says softly, hoping that she wasn't going to trip over an invisible detonator.

Something else that made Sakura feel weak and warm. Tobirama called her a lady. After hearing that everyone think she's a whore, that was literally all she needed to hear. His eyes never roamed her body, nor did he make any sort of show of trying to avoid looking at her. And while his eyes when looking at her are intense, she finds solace in knowing that they are always like that. That things between them haven't really changed. That not everyone was thinking or talking bad about her.

"She was," Tobirama agreed. "As I'm sure you are aware, kunoichi are still... a new idea around here. Very few women of both the Uchiha and Senju clans ever see real combat. It was during my father and Tajima Uchiha's time that the need for more warriors pulled exceptional women from both clans to the battle field. Hashirama and Madara both continued this out of respect for the women who grew passionate over battle and because neither side could afford to lose even a single body on the battle field."

Sakura hums softly under her breath in understanding. "Perhaps I'm biased, but women have a lot to offer the shinobi culture, just like men," she says. "Some of the most powerful shinobi I've met are women. Men too, but you're right. Women in battle situations are new, but women in positions of power," Like Lady Tsunade and Lady Mei, "is revolutionary. Women have a power over men that I wonder if men realize."

Tobirama stops and turns to her, tilting his head slightly. "Explain."

"When you spoke about your father, you spoke about the necessity of needing women on the battle field. It was just a fact and you spoke like it was. But when you spoke about your mother, you, in the face of kunoichi acknowledged that I am a lady. Because of the words your mother told you and your brothers as children, allows you to stand before me today and say, to my face, that you acknowledge that I don't have to sacrifice my femininity to be a kunoichi. That we can exist as one in the same," Sakura says, staring up into crimson eyes.

Tobirama's eyebrows pull together, as if he didn't understand.

"You really can't see it? Moreso a few years ago rather than now, but women had to beg for the rights they got in your mother's time. To be able to speak at a man's table. To be able to deny a man. Even now, some of that stuff is still frowned upon. But your mother is really smart. I mean, really smart. I don't know the timeline, but I'm assuming by the time you guys were born, either women were already allowed to join the war or they would within the next few years, yes?"

Tobirama nods, not specifying to which, though. He seems more interested in her point.

"Well, your mother did something really smart. Since I'm assuming she was the one that raised you and your brothers, she went right to the people that would be deciding the future for kunoichi and women of the Senju clan in general to spread her beliefs, whether she meant to or not," Sakura says, hoping he's understanding what she's saying and not finding it insulting in the slightest.

"Us," Tobirama murmurs, mind working.

Sakura nods, stepping a bit closer. "Yes. Your mother's words are revolutionary! I'm not surprised at all that this alliance ended up happening," that my future takes the shape it will, Sakura thinks, "since day one your mother has been teaching you guys about equality. And it's working. To this day. Some odd twenty years later or whatever. Your mother wanted you to know that a woman is still a woman and a man is still a man. Be damned the titles," Sakura says, eyes wide. "Your mother is truly amazing! All of this," Sakura gestures toward the make-shift village. "This all started because someone said that they were finally done hating someone else. Someone finally said they were done being treated like less. And you, Hashirama-sama and Madara-sama are making it come true.

"You never once denied me my abilities as a shinobi," Sakura says, smiling brightly up at the future Second Hokage. "You embraced my medical arts, for whatever reason, that's not the point. Yet knowing that I am armed with similar weapons that you carry and knowing that I have chakra, that's significant to any shinobi, flowing through my body, you still acknowledge me for what I am, beyond all of that. I am a woman. That is something I will always be. Same with a shinobi. Both of those things are who I am now. And I don't think you guys realize how much you could be different if your mother never said such things to you."

Tobirama shakes his head, a strange look in his eyes as he stares over Sakura's head to the forest beyond. "No," he murmurs, seemingly lost in thought. "I think I am able to deduce how different I would be. And I'm not so sure it pleases me to know that about myself."

Sakura reaches out and touches Tobirama's shoulder, lightly, worried that his lightning fast reflexes would snap her forearm in two if she's not careful. But he doesn't react, not at first. He just stares over her head for a few moments before blinking and focusing in on her face in the fading light. She forced herself not to look for the glowing white orb that'll be in the sky.

"Don't think about the person you could be, Tobirama-sama," Sakura says softly, keeping her eyes on her face. "Think about the person you are. Right now." She smiles brightly before pulling her hand away, not wanting to push her luck. "Now, I'd better head on home. I've got an early day ahead of me."

Tobirama makes a noise in agreement and continues to walk Sakura home until they are standing at her porch. He tips his head a bit in farewell before turning on his heel and walking away without another word. Sakura has given him much to think about. And he has given her just as much. Sakura prayed that the talks with the Yamanaka and the Sarutobi go well tomorrow.

She also prayed that now that the issue between herself and Kana is at a moot point at the moment, that it's considered "resolved" and it can just fade to the back of Sakura's memory for a few weeks and then slip out when she's not looking. Either way, Sakura will do absolutely nothing to ruin the chances of the village she loves being formed. There may have been a bit of disillusionment earlier that day, but Sakura was still willing to bet everything on the way this village will eventually turn out.

If Sakura gives up hope on the future, she's got nothing left.


	8. Dream

Sakura had a dream that night. It was of herself, Ino, Hinata and Tenten. They were all over at Hinata's house. They were all laughing and joking around, talking about all sorts of things. Girl things; clothes, new shoes, cute hair styles, and Shinobi things; low rate on weapons at Anko's shop, missions that they had just been on, how their teams were doing. It was late into the night, Sakura had somehow forgotten that this was a dream, when something strange happened. They were all in the middle of laughing at something Tenten was telling them about a mission she was on with her team, and how it was steadily declining into a disaster when Ino turned to look at Sakura with wide light blue eyes.

"Sakura," Ino says, catching the pink haired girl's attention.

"Yeah?" Sakura asks, noticing that Ino and Hinata were now both staring at her intensly, like Sakura was iding something and they promised that they would find out what it was. Yet, Sakura wasn't hiding anything. At least not from them.

Sakura looks between them in a mixture of worry and confusion. "What's going on, you guys?"

All three girls stared at her now with uncharacteristically blank eyes, as if they suddenly weren't like themselves anymore. Ino, as pretty and girlie Sakura remembered, looked at her with a dead expression. There was a hallow, emptiness to each of their eyes as they stared back at her. Even the kindness of Hinata's eyes and the calculated joy in Tenten's fall blank in seconds.

"You can't forget what Naruto told you," Ino says.

"You can't forget the last time we spoke," Hinata says, her voice as soft as ever, but holding an even, emotionless tone to it.

Tenten tilts her head to the side, her long, thick dark brown hair that is usually trapped in her signature buns falls over her shoulders like a chocolate waterfall. "Don't forget about her. Remember Kaguya."

As soon as the words left Tenten's mouth, an image flashes across Sakura's eyes. Naruto, leaning over her, eyebrows pulled together in worry, but there was a determined look in his eye that seemed perpetually there. It was something that Sakura immediately latched onto. She looks deep into those familiar blue orbs and - passed the determination and confidence - there was deep worry and fear. The sight of it freezes Sakura to her core. His lips are moving, her brain tells her. Her eyes flicker down to his moving lips, trying to understand the words.

Her names. That she recognizes.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto says, eyes widening. "I need you to do something for me."

"What, Naruto?" Sakura asks, breathless. She's hurt. It's difficult to move. To breath, even.

"-e alone!" Naruto says. "-n't worry! Ju- trust-"

Sakura shakes her head. "Naruto, I... I don't understand what you're saying. Your words are all choppy."

"-away from the Goddess. -can't have you!" Naruto narrows his eyes. "-thers will protect you - til we can get to you. St- safe! Don't give- okay?"

Sakura shakes her head even harder, reaching out to grip onto her friend, only to feel her hands pass through him. "No, Naruto! Wait! Stop! I don't know what's going on! Keep what away from the Goddess? Naruto! Naruto, help me! I don't know what's going on! Please! I'm so lost! How do I get back to you guys! Naruto!" Try as she may, Skaura's arms kept swinging through all of Naruto, as if he were an illusion.

Her entire vision goes black and it stays like that for a few minutes, as Sakura loudly pants, trying to catch her breath. She spins around wildly in the blackness trying to find something - anything - that could indicate where she was or what was going on.

"Naruto!" Sakura yells, her voice going hoarse as she spins, eyes searching frantically for her blond haired friend. "Naruto! Where are you?"

"Who's Naruto?" A soft voice asks.

Sakura spins around to the source of the voice and freezes in her tracks. Kaguya stands before Sakura, her head tilted to the side, as if confused. She didn't look like the wild maniac that Sakura clearly remembers her as. She looks innocently confused, looking at Sakura with wide, lightly purple tinted eyes. Sakura recoils, as if slapped, taking a step back.

Kaguya looks down at Sakura's feet for a moment, before back up into her eyes. "Where are my grandsons? Have you seen them?"

Sakura's shaking her head briskly from side to side. "No. No, I haven't." Her grandsons? Asura and Indra?

Kaguya stares at her for a moment, before stepping closer. Sakura immediately retreats a step back, not wanting to be close should the Goddess decide to actually reach out and strike the pink haired girl.

"I can feel them on you," Kaguya says, narrowing her eyes slightly. "I recognize them. Why are you lying?" She takes another step closer, face darkening. "Why?"

Sakura jolts up in her bed, heart pounding so hard Sakura puts her hand over her chest in fear that her heart will suddenly burst from her breast plate and bounce around the room. Sakura is covered in a cold sweat, green eyes flying around the room, looking for the byakugan and sharingan wielding Goddess, only to see her new home in the up and coming Leaf Village.

Sakura takes a moment to let her heart settle back down before falling back against her pillow, closing her eyes again. She can still hear the Goddess voice in her head as clearly as she could once hear her own inner-Sakura. As Sakura grew older, the one time prominent second voice in her head began to diminish until now, she no longer hears her. Sakura always used to draw strength from that inner-her, but since she found herself, the need as become less and less frequent until she stopped hearing her all together.

The pink haired medic often came to wonder whatever triggered her inner self to appear, but always chalked it up to her own version of an imaginary friend that her lonely childish mind conjured up to protect herself from all her bullies.

Sakura looks up at the window, to see light of dawn beginning to filter in. With a groan, Sakura got out of bed to get ready for the day. She spent as little time as possible in her new house. As thankful as she was to Hashirama for making it for her, it was a painful reminder that she was alone. Her parents presences weren't in this house, nor would they ever.

Sakura pulled on her normal shinobi attire, only to pause. By today, if it hasn't already, word of Sakura's blow up will have worked its way around the entire village and the two clans that inhabit it. Sakura just has to keep her head down and break into a sprint all the way to the river and hope to avoid everyone along the way, maybe a few days away from the make-shift village will be enough to let the whole drama from the day before blow over. Sakura can hope, right?

"Fuck," Sakura grumbles under her breath as she steps outside to see Hashirama standing in front of her front door, but his back is to Sakura, and he's watching the sun rise. He turns his head a bit at the sound of Sakura's voice, but doesn't turn around yet. Sakura stops at the end of her front porch and stares at the back of the future First Hokage.

The height from the deck, which is probably almost six inches, Sakura is almost as tall as Hashirama, standing almost eye level with the Senju clan leader. She reaches up and rubs the back of her head, running her fingers through her soft pink hair, that's already beginning to air dry.

"I had no idea," Hashirama says softly, still not turning to look at Sakura. "When I saw you the other day. I never thought..." The wind picks up, pushing his pin straight, lower back length brown hair flows a bit behind him before settling back into place.

Sakura raises an eyebrow, not sure what to expect. Obviously he was referring to when Sakura first stepped out in her signature shinobi garbs. She crosses her arms over her chest, leaning heavily on her left hip. "Never thought, what?" She asks softly when it seems like he's not going to say anything else without prompt. Admittedly, she is a bit worried about what he's going to say. What will she do if he tells her to leave? To be asked by the future First Hokage to leave the future Leaf village to just leave will do nothing favorable to her self esteem.

Hashirama turns to look at Sakura, his eyebrows pull together worriedly. "When I saw you in the clothes from your home village," he sighs, shaking his head before looking back at Sakura, "I was in awe. I never thought that you looked anything other than beautifully unique."

Sakura blinks a few times, blushing deeply at the compliment. "Oh...?" She scratches the back of her neck, embarrassed. She wasn't expecting that. "Um, thank you, Hashirama-sama."

Hashirama smiles faintly. "I thought that you were so unique in how different your entire presence is. You are so different than what I'm used to seeing. Pink hair and green eyes and then the colors and clothes that you wear... it's the physical embodiment of everything I've been looking for. As soon as I saw you, I thought that how different you were from what we were used to was exactly the reason that I wanted to invite people into the this village. I wanted to know how different people look and act. How they are with people similar to them, and oh so very different."

The way that Hashirama spoke, closer to the end, was filled with so much passion and honest, pure desire. His dark brown eyes, so kind and caring every time Sakura had seen them, was lit up in excitement and happiness. The prospect of being able to meet and interact with people so different from himself was so sincere on his face and in his voice, that Sakura couldn't help but believe him, whole-heartedly. Not that she suspected anything malicious from him, but she's beginning to understand why he was able to rally so many different people together to form a village using the Will of Fire as the center piece. He honestly wants to learn about others and he's willing to do just about anything to make them feel welcome.

Sakura couldn't help but believe his words when he said he was in awe at her attire and overall person. Sakura wasn't the atypical woman for this era and was probably seen as exotic - which admittedly is a little weird to hear, she didn't feel all that exotic - because she was so different than what they were used to. Hashirama's ideals were revolutionary in Sakura's time, as well. The fact that he was so open to the differences in everyone was what made the idea of the Leaf possible to begin with.

Him, and Madara, Sakura supposed. It was a childhood dream of both of theirs, she's come to learn.

It was vastly different for Sakura. She grew up surrounded by people she was completely unfamiliar with. But in this time, they grew up with their families. Occasionally other allied clans would be intermixed, like the Sarutobi clan to the Senju nearing the end of the war, Sakura remembered learning in school. Once the alliance between the Senju and Uchiha was official, the allied clans to the Senju and Uchiha backed off so that the two clans could try and settle into their strange new form of alliance without the hindrance of others until they became acclimated.

Now it seems that the Sarutobi are coming to see if this new and strange idea - revolutionary, Sakura thinks with pride - is something that they want to pursue. If Sakura recalls correctly, the leader of the clan at this time is the Third's father, or grandfather, she couldn't remember which. But she did know that Sasuke Sarutobi, the Third's father, became best friends with Tobirama. But that was something off-handed that the Third had told her class back in the Academy, what feels like a lifetime ago.

"I believe you," Sakura says softly, looking into Hashirama's large brown eyes, realizing that he was staring at her, as if silently begging her to believe his words. It felt strange, saying those words. The exact same words Madara had said to her the day before. It leaves a strange heaviness in the pit of Sakura's stomach.

Hashirama walks up to Sakura, looking relieved. He also seems to notice that they are roughly the same height while Sakura's on the porch. "Thank you," Hashirama says softly. "I would have said something to you about..." his eyes trail down Sakura's body - her attire, more specifically - in an honest and none-shady way possible before looking back into Sakura's eyes sadly, as if he's deeply pained, "... your clothes, if I thought there was anything wrong with them."

Sakura can tell by his eyes that he's trying to be serious, he's trying to show that he honestly thought that nothing was wrong with her expressing herself in the way that was uniquely her. She honestly believed that he was being completely sincere. But just hearing his words and knowing that this seriousness was somewhat unlike the future First, Sakura couldn't help but tease.

"I gotcha," she says, laughing.

Hashirama blinks, as if he didn't understand. Once, twice, thrice, and then the realization strikes him and his eyes widen.

"Oh no, I didn't mean it like that! Is that what that sounded like? Oh, Sakura, I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to sound like that," Hashirama says quickly, waving his hands around in front of his face, a slight blush appearing on his cheeks.

Sakura laughs again, catching his hands swinging around and holds them tightly in her smaller ones. His tan prominent against pale whiteness of her skin. Hashirama sputters to a halt in his excuses when Sakura didn't seem upset.

"I'm just playing with you, Hashirama-sama. I understand. I'm just not used to people giving me praises, so I was just trying to lighten the situation. Believe me, Hashirama-sama, I know you weren't insinuating anything." Sakura giggles, smiling into the curious brown eyes. "You were just making me blush, is all and I had to stop you."

Hashirama laughs, smiling broadly, a very Naruto-like smile. Confident, friendly and without judgment.

"You got me," he admits, as if it weren't completely obvious. His laughter slowly dies out and his dark brown eyes lock onto hers curiously. "But in all seriousness, I never in a million years would have thought such slander would have spread between the clans. You are as much part of this family as they are, and I am so disappointed in them and myself. They should know better, or so I though," he says sadly, "and myself because I should have known better."

Sakura nods slowly. She opens her mouth to say... what? That she wasn't upset? That she wasn't a little disappointed herself? She was, but not in Hashirama, she didn't want him to be upset about his kind hearted... ignorance. Yes, a bad word, especially talking about a man she has come to admire, but it was the only one she could think of that fit. Perhaps it was a little bit of ignorance on everyone's part. Either way, Sakura really liked the way Hashirama is. Regardless of his ignorance. Or perhaps naiveté is the best word of all.

"I'm not mad at you, Hashirama-sama, I should have known as well," Sakura says, squeezing Hashirama's hands reassuringly. "I'm a little upset about it all, but it doesn't change the way I feel about this place. I still have high hopes for it. I believe in you, Hashirama-sama. Tobirama-sama and Madara-sama too. I believe in the three of you, and in the Will of Fire. Nothing more needs to be said."

Hashirama suddenly pulls Sakura into his arms, her chin buried in his shoulder. Sakura blinks rapidly at the suddenness of the hug.

"You truly are a sweet girl, Sakura-chan. Thank you," Hashirama whispers into her hair. "I promise you it won't be miss placed."

Sakura returns the hug, taking a moment to enjoy the warmth it provides. It seems like a long time since the last time she hugged someone. To really relish in the warmth of another and just relax, if even more a moment.

"Thanks," Sakura says, pulling back to smile. "It hurt my feelings, but I'm a big girl, I'll get over it eventually."

Hashirama shakes his head. "It shouldn't have to be like that." He sighs. "I hate those words." He doesn't have to specify what words. Obviously the things that his clansmen and the Uchiha clansmen were calling her behind her back. "My clan know that I don't like such words and yet they chose to use them anyway. I can't apologize enough."

Sakura cups his face, looking into Hashirama's dark brown eyes. "It's alright, Hashirama-sama. Truly. I hit Kana for Kami's sake. I think we can agree that the rest is up to you guys, but just so you know, I'm not mad anymore. My feelings were a little hurt, yes, but what's really hurt tight now is my stomach and my legs."

Hashirama quirks an eyebrow at that. "Oh? Why?"

"Madara-sama is a manipulative slave driver," Sakura mutters, rubbing her aching stomach. "I was telling him about the festival idea while we were sitting on this fallen over tree trunk hovering parallel to the ground. It kills. He was goading me, I knew he was, and I still fell for it and hurt in the end."

Hashirama barks out a laugh, throwing his head back to let out this hardy noise. Sakura couldn't help but smile along side him.

"That means he likes you," Hashirama says through his breathy laughs. "He's odd, isn't he?"

Sakura rolls her eyes. "I have yet to come across someone who isn't the least bit strange around here." Hashirama pouts at that. Sakura smiles a bit and pats his arm. "Thanks for the talk, I really needed it. I'm got to get going. The girls are waiting for me."

Hashirama nods, stepping back a bit to put a respectful distance between them. "Thank you for hearing me out, Sakura-chan." Sakura jumps down to the dirt and slips past the Senju clan leader making it only a few steps before he calls out to her again. "Sakura?"

"Yes?" Sakura pauses, twisting around at the waist to look back at the long brown haired man.

"Thank you for giving us a second chance."

Sakura beams at him. "Don't worry about it. Okay? Ja ne." She waves her hands around in farewell before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

 

About two months passed. There was alliance talks with the Yamanaka and Sarutobi clans and after two meetings with the Sarutobi and five meetings with the Yamanaka and both clans signed on to join the alliance. About a week after the Yamanaka and Sarutobi both moved their clans to the make-shift village, the Akimichi asked for meetings. Three meetings later, and they joined too. And their soon-to-be-thought-of-fondly cuisine so unique to the families.

Sakura had been surviving off the Senju cooking, and what she makes herself, and it's bland. Both are, but it's the way that they've been living for a long time. Most of these clans have had to worry a lot more about war rather than the taste of their food. When the Akimichi showed up, they insisted they would be in charge of cooking for the village. It's not as good as the Akimichi shops back home, but it is leaps and bounds better than what she's had in a while.

Something about the Yamanaka coming before the Akimichi didn't sound right, but for the life of her, Skaura couldn't exactly remember what was wrong. But she couldn't focus on that. In the midst of her training Aya and Salma, who are both steadily getting stronger in the medical arts, the Senju and Uchiha are both helping to build homes for the newly arriving clans and working hard to make them feel welcome.

Sakura spent the first few days avoiding the village as much as possible to keep the illusion that everything was peaches and cream to the newly arriving clans. It may be a bit deceptive, but Sakura didn't want to do anything that would somehow mess up the future, but when she was finally caught walking around, some people outright apologized for their behavior. Some just bowed and murmured their apologies before rushing off. Kana had stopped by and apologized, obviously begrudgingly, but for the most part kept herself scarce. Sakura barely saw the Uchiha in passing anymore.

After a month of everyone walking around, trying to awkwardly intermix, the three founders, along with the three new clan leaders, agreed to hold Sakura's festival idea. After it was explained to the later three, they liked it and wanted to have a more in-depth discussion about it, so for the seemingly millionth time, Sakura is brought in to explain it again.

Sakura's not sure if it was planned or just a strange twist of fate, but Sakura happened to be standing before the three founders and the three clan leaders in a medical kimono. She, Aya and Salma, had gone to the clinic and began helping the dwindling number of remaining patients. Keito was one of them that they visited. He was up and working though rehabilitation that Sakura was over looking and was showing them how the muscles in the human body worked and how they should be moving. The meeting was multi-purpose but ended up working in Sakura's favor.

They finished right as Sakura was called to the meeting building. She dismissed the girls and came straight here, not having time to change back into her normal clothes. Which, now standing in front of the three founders and the three clan leaders - all of which being men - Sakura might be a bit thankful.

"Sorry, Sakura-chan," Hashirama says from his usual place at the head of the table. "Where you busy?"

"Not at all, Hashirama-sama," Sakura says, bowing politely in greeting. "I was doing a bit of teaching to Aya-chan and Salma-chan while getting Kaido's rehabilitation for the day over with. We just got done when I was called here, so there's no issue."

"Both at the same time, huh?" Hashirama asks, eyes lit up. "What were you showing them?"

"The muscles and tendons in the arm, how they develop and what to look for if they aren't working properly, things like that," Sakura says simply, not wanting to go too in depth with something that is probably go over everyone's head except for maybe Hashirama.

"How's he doing?" Hashirama asks, seemingly more interested in Sakura's work rather than why she was called here.

The corner of her lips quirk up a bit. "He'll actually be able to start full shinobi training by next week. He's healed great."

Hashirama interlaces his fingers on the wood in front of him. "Any restrictions?"

Sakura shakes her head. "None, sir. It'll take him a bit more time to build up the lost muscle strength in his right arm, but once he's up to snuff, he'll be able to continue all lines of shinobi work he participated in before his injuries."

Hashirama, Tobirama and Madara all exchange looks. The former most showing his obvious approval at this. Tobirama's eyebrows were high and Madara was nodding slowly, mumbling something under his breath for only Hashirama, who was closest to him to hear, and Tobirama, who was looking at his lips at the time to read. The clan leaders of the Yamanaka, Akimichi and Sarutobi, all glance around at each other confused.

Hashirama quickly fills them in. "Two months ago, while we were opening up areas for homes a Senju cousin was accidently burned by one of our Uchiha counter parts. It was all just an accident but the burn was pretty bad on his right arm and a bit on his torso. Our head medic, Sakura here, did a procedure that managed to heal the horrible burns and, from what it sounds like, return his shinobi capabilities to him." He smiles at her, pleased.

Sakura flushes in embarrassment. Head medic? Sakura has to wonder if he was just giving her a fancy title to make it seem more professional, or if this was something that was going to be brought up again later. Like, an actual place in this growing society. Sakura doesn't know if it scares her or excites her more.

"How bad was the burn?" the Sarutobi clan leader asks, eyebrows raised in interest.

Sakura smiles bashfully. "Not bad enough to not be able to heal." That got some looks around the table. Not wanting to take up any more of their time, Sakura looks over at Tobirama, knowing he probably would want to get this entire thing moving along as well. "What is it that you called me here for, my lords?" As if she didn't know.

Tobirama seemed pleased that they were going to deviate from their current topic onto the reason that they were there.

So, once again, she was asked to explain to the new clan leaders about her idea and answered their questions simply. After there was no more questions, Sakura took this moment to mention something else, something she hadn't quite thought about until now.

"This is merely a suggestion, not that I would know how it works one way or another, but there is the chance that you could do this to start building a profit for the village," Sakura says slowly, wondering if she may be overstepping her boundaries. Her words, though, catch their attention.

"What do you mean by that?" the Yamanaka clan leader asks, pupil-less blue eyes, so similar to Sakura's long time friend's, stare up at her skeptically. Sakura is a young woman, obviously, what would she know about money? He didn't have to say anything, Sakura could see it in his eyes. Wouldn't he piss himself if he learned that his future son's heir would be an heiress. Even in this time, heiress's would be married off to other clans to strengthen bonds and forge alliances. Some of that is still done in Sakura's time, so it's not too surprising.

It still doesn't stop Sakura's eyes from darkening at the lilt of condescension in the young leader's voice. All Sakura did was tilt her head, just a little bit - minute, even, if anyone asked Sakura; it was hardly noticeable, but all three founders lock on to her.

"Sakura!" All three founders say out suddenly, in varying degrees of haste. Sakura and the other clan leaders all jump at the noise and look over at the three at the far end of the table. Tobirama glares at the wood grain, adverting his eyes. Madara huffs, narrowing his own eyes, daring anyone to speak while Hashirama looks boyishly bashful.

"Uh, sorry," Hashirama mutters, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. All the other clan leaders and Sakura look at each other in confusion.

"Sakura," Madara says suddenly, his deep voice pulling her attention back to him, "tell us about this idea you have."

Sakura blinks a few times, trying to clear up the previous anger that was swelling in her chest before relaxing again, turning her attention to the long black haired Uchiha clan leader. "Well, you could spread word to the nearby villages that there is going to be an opportunity to get in more of the shinobi market or local attraction. For a small fee of whatever you want to set up shock within the grounds and sell their wares to the shinobi here. That gives people the opportunity for civilians to see what we have to offer and to see the growing promise this village is expressing."

Sakura reaches up and pulls the white ribbon holding her pink hair up, letting it fall around her shoulders. It has grown a lot n the past two months. It's almost to the middle of her shoulder blades. She shakes her head a bit, letting her hair fall back into it's normal place before looking back at the collection of men.

"Well, that's just me. It's your choice," she says simply, shrugging her shoulders.

"It's a good idea, Sakura-chan," Hashirama says, seemingly relieved about something. Sakura quirks an eyebrow but decides not to mention it.

"Is that all?" Sakura asks, straightening up.

Hashirama nods. "Yes, thank you, Sakura. You may be dismissed." Sakura bows respectfully before turning around and heading for the door, opening it, before sitting down and smoothly slipping on her boots. She closes the door softly behind her and heads back to the clinic to get her clothes.

 

After Sakura changed back into her regular clothes, she's sitting in front of the clinic, putting her shoes on when she spots a certain brown haired Senju she knows fondly sneaking away into the forest heading toward the mountain. She looks around nervously before slipping between the trees. Sakura tilts her head to the side and stands up, moving to follow after the brunette.

"Salma!" Sakura calls after the sneaking brunette after a yard or so away from the clans.

The girl jumps, obviously having not expected to have been followed. She spins around, eyes wide, looking extremely guilty. If it was anyone else, Sakura would be worried about this shady activity, but Sakura knew for a fact that Salma didn't have a lot of training in the shinobi life outside of medical ninjutsu that Sakura's been teaching her. And the most shinobi part of that training is that they are using chakra. Sakura hasn't gotten close to the fighting aspect of the training. She's not sure how much the girls will be able to fit hers, and Lady Tsunade's, style of fighting.

Lady Tsunade taught Shizune, Sakura, Ino and Hinata. While Sakura was the only one that was taken on as an apprentice and taught everything, but she's also the only one that she can see, other than Tsunade, being able to do that battle style. A part of Sakura is still hesitant on whether she'll end up teaching the Destructive Fist style to her two apprentices or not. Medical ninjutsu is medical ninjutsu, but the Destructive Fist was something that Tsunade made herself and it also added to her impressiveness.

Admittedly, there was a little piece of Sakura that wanted to keep something of her master's to herself. Perhaps her fighting style would be it.

But that's not what this was all about. What mattered was, Sakura wasn't concerned that she was about to get jumped or something when Salma turned to her with a blatantly guilty look on her face.

"Sakura," Salma says, running her fingers through her side pony tail, pale digits working the knots out of her hair. "W-What are you doing here?" She averts her eyes from Sakura's,

The pink haired girl crosses her arms over her chest, raising an eyebrow. "I saw something a little shady - you know, a pretty brown haired Senju sneaking into the forest away from the village - but other than that, enjoying the weather." Sakura raises the other eyebrow, leaning back and forth on her feet, from heels to toes then back.

Salma's eyes hone in on Sakura's feet, still avoiding Sakura's green eyes. "I... uh... I don't know..."

Not believing that for a second, Sakura just stares at her. "Uh huh..." After a full minute of awkward silence, Sakura stops shifting her weight and drops her arms to her sides and says, "Okay then, well, we should go back to the village then. It's dangerous out here without proper training."

Salma scratches the back of her head, glancing around nervously. "I... I'm safe..."

"Not if you're heading away from the village. There are a lot of stupid people out there, Salma, some might just be stupid enough to get close to a collected group of clans trying to form a village. One stray lamb is a goldmine for dirtbags, you know?" Sakura says simply. "Come on." Sakura waves for the slightly older woman to follow her back, wondering if she's going to do that, or explain what she's doing.

"I.." Salma looks hesitant, glancing deeper into the forest before looking back at Sakura and sighing. "I can't. I'm going to meet someone. A... a boy..."

Sakura blinks in surprise. "A boy?"

Salma nods guiltily. "We aren't doing anything," she quickly says, looking at Sakura with wide green eyes. "I just... our relationship is complicated and I..." she throws her hands over her eyes. "I don't know what to do. I... I'm scared."

Sakura steps a bit closer, eyes still wide with surprise. "Why? What do you have to be afraid of?"

"I... I like him, but... my husband... how can I do this to him?" Salma leans against a tree, shaking a bit. "What am I doing? What am I doing?"

Sakura steps up to the brunette and wraps her arms around the other's shaking shoulders. "Salma, do you remember what I told you the night you stayed at my house?"

Salma sniffles loudly, the noise muffled by her hands. She quickly wipes her tears away before wrapping her arms around Sakura and burying her face into the side of Sakura's neck. "Yeah..."

"You have to do things for yourself, Salma, if whomever your going to meet is going to make you happy, then you should pursue it. The only exception is if whomever you're with or whatever your doing is dangerous to you. Is it?" Sakura asks softly, smoothing out some long brown hair.

"No, no. He's a good man. I just..." Salma shakes her head. "Am I betraying my husband? What if everyone says I am?"

"Mind over matter, Salma," Sakura says, pulling back to look into watery green eyes. Salma blinks a few times, eyebrows pulled tightly together, face red with tears filling her eyes. "Those who mind don't matter, and those who matter, don't mind. If they love you, it shouldn't matter who you're with or what you're doing. If they do care, then they aren't good enough to be in your life. Do you understand that?"

Salma nods slowly, eyes still watering. Sakura tucks a stray strand of long brown hair that slipped from her white ribbon behind her ear.

"Yes... but... what should I do?" Salma asks softly, her voice low and throaty from her grief. "I like him. I don't know how well, yet, but he's just so... perfect. Seiichio will always be number one in my life and I miss him but... I'm so lonely, Sakura. And he... the man waiting for me, he doesn't ask anything from, just my time. I really... I like him." She sighs, wiping the tears from her eyes, shoulders slumping. "I'm not ready to commit anything and I just..." she sighs again. "What am I doing here?"

Sakura tilts her chin up and smiles kindly. "You're living, Salma. There is nothing wrong with that. If he's not pressing you for anything, then he might just be the good kind of guy that will be willing to wait for you to be ready to commit. And Salma," the brown haired Senju looks at her, "that doesn't have to be now."

Salma nods, taking a deep breath and letting it relax her a bit. "Thank you, Sakura. How did you become so wise?"

Sakura shrugs her shoulders. "I don't know. Sometimes I open my mouth and my master comes out." Salma laughs, looking a bit better. Softly, Sakura asks, "Do you trust this guy?"

Salma nods slowly. "He's an honorable man. If he wanted to do something to me, he could have long ago."

Sakura frowns at that, wondering how long this was going on without her knowledge. Salma is an adult - she was married once for Kami's sake! - but to Sakura; she is about as innocent as they come. She's becoming pretty protective of the sweet brunette.

"Is that so?" Sakura murmurs, pursing her lips. "Well, I'll let you go for now, but if I don't see you in an hour, I'll come searching and bring an army, okay?"

Salma laughs, her face finally returning to it's normal color. "Yes, ma'am." A pause, then, "Maybe one day I'll introduce the two of you. I'm sure you'd come to like one another."

Sakura nods. "I'll be eager awaiting. If he hurts you in any way, I'll kick his ass for you."

Salma hugs Sakura one more time, whispering her thanks into Sakura's shoulder before pulling away, turning around and, after pausing a moment to take a deep breath to settle her nerves, heads deeper in. Sakura mentally wars herself on whether she should break the silent promise between them and follow Salma anyway, but decides that she wouldn't dare betray the young woman's trust like that. So, she turns and heads back to the village, but sticks close to the forest, keeping her ears perked in case she hears anything shady.

"Hi there," Hashirama calls up to Sakura, who was sitting on a branch, looking into the forest.

"Hi, Hashirama-sama," Sakura calls down, waving with her hand for him to join her. He does, straddling the branch like the ten year boy, kicking his legs back and forth cutely. "What's up?"

"I'm hiding from Tobirama," he admits, smiling. Sakura barks a laugh, not expecting that.

"Why?" Sakura asks, giggling a bit.

Hashirama sighs. "My darling little brother seems to forget, often mind you, that I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself and feels the need to micromanage every little bit of my day."

Sakura tilts her head thoughtfully, leaning back more against the tree behind her. "What's he trying to get you to do?"

Hashirama shrugs his shoulder nonchalantly, obviously unable to care less. "No idea. I'm punishing him by hiding. I sent like fifty wood clones running around in the forests to distract him for a while. He'll capture and kill all of them until he finds me. It's a fun game we used to play as kids."

Sakura laughs again. "Capture and kill aniki's clones?"

Hashirama laughs at that. "Perhaps."

After a few moments of the two of them staring out into the forest, Sakura finally turns back to Hashirama. "So, what was with the three of you yelling at me earlier in the meeting room?"

Hashirama blinks a few times, pulling his eyes away from the forest to look into Sakura's emerald green eyes. Once he recalls what she's talking about, he laughs. "You were about to rip into the Yamanaka clan leader, Sakura-chan. We just wanted to put your mind onto something else."

Sakura stares at him blankly. "No I wasn't."

"You have a rage tell," Hashirama says mirthfully. "So does Tobi, so no worries. Your rage tell is that your entire body freezes up and your voice lower, the final straw is when you tilt you head to the side, then you lash out like a snake at an unsuspecting prey. Tobirama's is that he goes into a blind rage that is next to impossible to stop."

"That's unbelievable," Sakura mutters, eyes wide.

Hashirama tisks, shaking his head. "Believe it. One time I almost fucked up my elbow trying to stop him."

"No I-" Sakura gives the First a weird look. "No, I meant about me. But that is a little fucked up too."

Hashirama laughs. "Oh trust me, it's not fun to see. As for yourself, the first time I saw it was when you were healing Kaido and Kana was getting on your nerves and you snapped at her. The second time was when you hit her."

"How do you know that's not just how I react around Kana?" Sakura asks coyly.

Hashirama shrugs. "I suppose I don't." He jerks suddenly, as if zapped.

"Hashirama-sama?" Sakura asks, suddenly worried about the stiffened man in front of her. Hashirama smiles sheepishly at her.

"Remember that thing about rage I told you about?" He asks, jumping to his feet.

Sakura blinks rapidly, confused. "Uh, yeah?"

He laughs. "Gotta go!" He jumps into the forest just seconds before Tobirama appeared right were he was moments before. Tobirama growled his brother's name and chased after. Sakura is left alone, just staring off into the darkness, wondering what just happened. A few minutes later, Sakura could hear the sound of battle that could only attest to Tobirama catching up with Hashirama. It's only for a few minutes before the forest falls silence once more.

As promised, an hour later Salma appears out of the forest, looking cutely happy. She's blushing happily is - does Sakura dare think it? - bubbly. Very much like a teenage girl forming a crush on a boy. At least she's not annoying about it like Sakura used to be. But at least she's happy. Sakura's willing to overlook the strange feeling in the pit of her gut in exchange for the brunette to have this little sliver of happiness reserved just for her.


	9. The Dance

It was about another month later before the village was teeming with people. Sakura's idea was used, and modified by Tobirama, to get people take up temporary residence in the village to watch the battles and sell their goods. Sakura went along with a bunch of people from the different clans to nearby villages and encourage them to come and see the battles, asking for kind donation based on whether they enjoyed the fights or not.

Normally, Sakura wouldn't have expected that to really work, but it brought in an entire slew of people from all the nearby villages. Sakura had forgotten that in this day and age, it is a lot less common to see any sort of shinobi battle because it was very dangerous. It's the same in Sakura's time, except in the Hidden Villages, the people are surrounded by shinobi and can see what they can do every single day. It's only the people not surrounded by shinobi every moment of the day that finds great intrigue in seeing them battle.

If Sakura had to guess, that's probably why the Chunin Exams were so popular. People are fascinated by the abilities of shinobi, especially if they aren't one. So, Sakura takes her previous thought back. She should have expected that it would be this awesome. Sakura felt right at home in the bustling dirt roads. This was what Konoha was suppose to be about. All these people with their contrasting personalities and views was very much like the future her home becomes.

Sakura, along with a bunch of volunteers from all the clans, mostly women with the occasional boy and Hashirama (who wanted to take part in as many aspects in this as possible), organized and preapproved the ribbons and where they would be going and with whom. Noncombatants in the clans were in charge, in shifts, on keeping score for all the clans to make sure this entire thing runs as organized as something like this can be. Controlled chaos, if Sakura had to put a phrase to what was going on.

Everyone was in a sunnier mood, despite the chaos. So many people having entered the village, anxious to see what all the clans had to offer and the "Yay! We have a village fund!" as Hashirama calls it, is beginning to grow as people pay a small fee for the three day long epic shinobi battle royale. The first day would start at noon, which was coming up shortly, and go until midnight. The second day would go from eight in the morning to early even, then a dinner provided by the Akimichi clan, and the final day would be midnight until noon the next day.

There is even a betting box going around. Every match can have people betting on one side or the other. Well, it's more like donations. If someone really enjoyed the match they can throw some money in the box and that also goes to the village's upbringing. Tobirama came up with that one.

Once everyone is acclimated, Hashirama calls for all participants and spectators to head to the one day 7th training field for the first match. There is wooden pillars separating all the fields to show out of bounds and safe spectator lines. The pillars are imbued with Hashirama's wood style chakra, so that his wood clones would be able to dictate easily who was in and out of bounds and to keep the people safe.

The entire village was practically jittering with excitement as everyone, shinobi and civilian alive, arrived at the training ground and gathered around the eldest of the three founders.

"Thank you, everyone," Hashirama says, then waits a moment for the loud din of everyone talking to quiet down. "Thank you, everyone, for participating and for coming to join us. We are so excited to have you all here and hope that you enjoy! Now, for a first match, just to kind of see first hand how things will be done, we invite a match between the young woman that came up with this idea and a young man from my clan, Ryo. Both of you would you please come and demonstrate."

Sakura and the Senju in mention both walk into the middle of the sanctioned off portion for this battle arena. Sakura remembered Ryo, he was one of the two Senju that Sakura ran into when she first woke up in the past, She accidently beat him down swiftly and then kind of split without really seeing the battle all the way through. So, Sakura can understand where he's coming from. A man's pride can be very crippling.

Although Sakura isn't much better. She has a pretty hearty pride as well.

"Ryo-san," Sakura says, tipping her head in greeting. He does as well, out of respect.

"After this battle is over, it will be decided," Ryo says. "We will both know where we stand with one another."

Sakura nods. "And then we can put this behind us. Agreed?"

Ryo nods. "Yes, ma'am."

Madara remembered Sakura's ribbon colors and the point system and was easily able to make the adequate number of ribbons of all the colors specified. Everyone knew what they meant and how much each was.

The prize for the winner with the most points, excluding Madara, Hashirama and Tobirama, who denounced the possibility of them winning do to the massive advantage they'll have just from their ribbons alone as Kage level shinobi, would be allowed to get specialized armor and a weapon of their choice, crafted using chakra metal. Which was high quality stuff that was not only a powerful conductor to chakra, making it immune to chakra based attacks, but it was also hardier than any sort of metal out there.

In Sakura's time such a thing was extremely hard to come by, but now? It was next to impossible. Sakura had to wonder where they had managed to find enough to be able to make both armor and a weapon from. Either way, it was a juicy prize for the people of this time. Not so much for Sakura, because she doesn't wear any armor, but maybe she could get some kind of specialized weapon or something. That is, if she wins.

Sakura and Ryo both have green, 30 point, ribbons for the equivalent of a Chunin.

Sakura reaches back to her medical pouch and pull out her signature black gloves, slipping them on. Sakura shakes her limbs out, warming them up. She rolls her shoulders a bit before falling into a defensive crouch.

This was a big moment. Sakura was helping hand out ribbons this morning. She saw that there was far more men grabbing ribbons rather than woman. If Sakura had to guess, she's one of maybe two dozen woman participating. She knows that Salma is working as one of the refs and Aya is participating. She also knows about one of the Senju women, a genjutsu specialist called Toka will be fighting. Those are the only ones she knows by name. The rest are a mixture of Sarutobi, Uchiha, Senju and only one Yamanaka. There isn't any Akimichi kunoichi, which actually doesn't surprise Sakura much.

Even in her time, there wasn't many Akimichi kunoichi, and not for any sexist reasons, as far as she knew. It just wasn't popular for the Akimichi women, they much preferred to stay at home and cook. Or at least, that's what she once heard Choji telling Ino when the blond had brought it up.

What happens today, right now in these fights, will dictate how kunoichi are viewed for years to come. When she was called up here, Sakura heard the giggles from the people, both clans and civilians. They don't think much of her. Well, the Uchiha and Senju, from what Sakura saw, managed to keep their faces neutral, but that could have been for any number of reasons.

They know what Sakura did to Kana so it could be that, or the fact that Hashirama was staring at them with level brown eyes and no one wanted to risk his wrath - though Sakura doubted the gentle hearted Senju could conjure such an emotion - or perhaps it was Tobirama and Madara, standing on the opposite side of the field from most of them, staring with almost daring eyes.

It leads Sakura to wonder if Tobirama told them - or at least Hashirama - about what Sakura had said about their shared mother. He didn't mention it, but perhaps that was because there was nothing more that needed to be said. Or, it could just simply be that Tobirama hadn't said anything. It could just be that, too.

"Are you ready, Sakura?" Salma says, bringing Sakura back to the present. The battle field has been cleared so that Sakura and Ryo could have their fight.

"I'm ready," Sakura says, looking over at Salma standing at the sidelines.

Salma nods, then looks over at Ryo. "Aniki? Are you ready?" Ryo nods and Sakura blanches. This guy was Salma's brother? She never asked Salma about her brother and now she feels really stupid for having not. Who would have thought that the guy Sakura rubbed the wrong way day 1 ended up being the older brother to her first friend in this time.

What rotten fucking luck.

"I'm ready," Ryo says, pulling out his sword.

Salma nods and holds up a hand. "Hajime!" She chops the air. Sakura and Ryo charge at each other. Just because this is Salma's brother, it doesn't mean that Sakura can't make this a true fight. As warriors, they owe it to one another to fight their hardest.

Ryo, with the distance his sword offers, swipes at Sakura's head. She ducks under the swipe, dropping down to a knee in front of him, striking out her foot at his left shin. He steps back to avoid the strike and swings the sword down toward Sakura's face. She pulls out a kunai and blocks it, the loud clang of metal against metal rings in Sakura's ear.

He's strong, but since Sakura got training from Tsunade, there is very few that could win out against Sakura's physical strength. She pushes his sword off to the right and grabs his wrist, standing up and twisting it sharply, making him drop his sword. Ryo grunts in pain and once again tries to maneuver his weight to throw Sakura off her balance. She teeters a bit, but keeps her left heel dug into the grass. With her free leg, she kicks his sword away, less he escape her grip and go for it again. The last thing she needs is to get stabbed.

Sakura spins around, wrapping his arms around her and throwing him over her shoulder and onto the ground, no doubt nothing he expected. His armor is cumbersome and slows him down. Sakura flips him onto his back and twists his arm up toward his shoulders. She drops her knee onto the center of his back, holding the kunai to his throat. It all happened so fast, it took Salma calling the match in Sakura's favor for her to realize that it was over.

That was probably the shortest match she had ever been part of. It probably wasn't fair for him. He had a lot working against him. Sakura's a girl. She's smaller than him and a lot lighter so her strength was a surprise and usually people don't try to get that close to each other. Sakura is one big contradiction. She shouldn't be this strong, this fast, this shinobi like. She's a woman.

Needless to say, there was some surprise - or a lot of surprise - in the shinobi and civilians alike. Even though Ryo and Sakura, when viewed by the Fifth Hokage, for Sakura, and the soon-to-be First Hokage, for Ryo, are both of Chunin rank but there is significant differences in their power. Perhaps because Sakura had a legendary warrior as her teacher, while war was Ryo's teacher.

Sakura stands up, moving away from Ryo to give him some space. Ryo climbs to his feet, rolling his shoulder back, no doubt pained when Sakura twisted it the wrong way, before bowing his head to Sakura. Sakura bowed back. She couldn't tell if he was upset by what had happened. His face remained neutral.

There is some awkward clapping that followed. Obviously no one knew what to think. No, strike that. Aya knew what to think. She was cheering very loudly, jumping up and down, fist striking the air.

"You go, Sakura-sensei!" Aya cheers, grinning brightly.

Sakura glances over at the boisterous Uchiha, waving fondly at the younger teen. Aya grins brightly when Sakura turned to look at her.

Ryo picks up his discarded sword, putting it back in it's sheath. He turns to head toward the crowd only to stop for a moment and pull off his ribbon that was wrapped around his belt and offers it to Sakura. She takes it, nodding her thanks. She pins it half hanging out of her medical pouch with a sewing needle she borrowed from Salma. Once it's in place, Sakura turns to follow Ryo off the field.

"Sakura-chan!" Hashirama calls from where he stood on the opposite side of the field from Salma, and where Sakura was heading. She glances over her shoulder at him, raising her eyebrow in question. "Come here!" He says, waving her over to him.

She spins around on her heel and walks over to the future First. She stops right in front of him. "Yes?"

"I would like to fight you next, Sakura," Hashirama says, smiling.

Sakura stares at him. First, blankly, then, as she processed the words, in absolute horror. She holds her hands up and shakes her head. "Are you nuts? No way!" She backs up slowly.

Hashirama grabs her arms to hold her in place before she can get too far away. "No, no, listen to me first. Don't run away."

"I don't want to fight you," Sakura says, not pulling away though.

Hashirama frowns at that, probably having never been told of such a thing. There is a bit of a pout to the future First's expression. "Why not?" He asks. He sounds like a child being denied something he wants.

Sakura scoffs at that, rolling her eyes. "I want to live," she says blandly. Hashirama looks mock hurt.

"I won't hurt you," he says, pouting. "Think of this only as a fight between friends."

Sakura gives him a incredulous look. "Right. I don't doubt it'd be a friendly bout, sort of," she mutters that last part to herself, "but there is no way someone like I can even offer a challenge to you, my lord."

Hashirama scoffs. "No such thing. Everyone offers a challenge one way or another. And besides, it's not about winning or losing. It's about having fun and giving people a good show so that they invest more in the village." He smiles at that. "Fine then. Think of it as public service. Besides, we have to show how two on two battles work."

Sakura visibly pales. "Who else would be fighting?"

"Tobi and Madara offered to be part of the demonstration," Hashirama supplies. Then he smiles, as if he saw nothing wrong with that statement.

But Sakura did. "My lords," Sakura does a sideways glance toward the other two, before looking back over at Hashirama, "I mean this in the kindest way possible, but no. It's an honor, truly, but surely there is someone else out there that could be a far better partner for whoever was the odd one out than I. And besides that, I'm interested in watching the match too. I don't want to be in it."

"I understand," Hashirama says, wilting like a flower under a harsh hail storm. "I just... I just thought it would be fun, you know? Your match against Ryo ended too quickly, I thought that perhaps this would be a nice way for us to bond. True shinobi showing their mettle against one another. All in good fun, you know?" He releases Sakura's arms and looks at her with large, puppy-dog brown eyes.

Sakura looks indecisive. She doesn't want to make an ass of herself going up against three legendary warriors, or, two. It's a two on two battle. But what she said was the truth. She'd have a lot better time witnessing the battle rather than to actually be participating in it. While a great honor, it also feels really painful, or like it would be. This entire thing could go one of two ways. Either they go easy on her and insult her as a shinobi, which Sakura's not completely not okay with because she'll need all the advantages she can get when facing one of these warriors, or, she gets the crap kicked out of her.

Just short of fighting her ass off and making this the best Kami-damned battle she ever fought in just to not negate any strides she has made for people's opinion of Kunoichi. Surely no one expects Sakura to nearly be on the level that these three tread on, but still. After her victory against Ryo, no matter how swift, was still a major victory in the eyes of the people.

Now Sakura's conflicted. If she accepts, even though she's going to fail epically, it's still such a honor to fight these legendary titans. And one of the men that she has come to admire most in the world, the First Hokage, wants to fight her, to show the world what he sees. Whatever that is. Sakura can tell that Hashirama has great respect for woman, she's seen how he treats her and every other woman he's ever come across, so she knows this isn't something underhanded of any sort. Maybe she should take a chance.

"I... don't know what to do," Sakura says, sighing.

"Don't let Hashirama pressure you," Madara says, glaring at Hashirama.

"Or you could," Hashirama offers, smiling boyishly. Tobirama rolls his eyes.

"How you make friends, brother, I will never understand." He shakes his head. "If she doesn't wish to fight us then you shouldn't try and force her."

Hashirama pouts, looking between his little brother and childhood friend. "I'm not forcing anyone into anything. Don't say that. You make me seem like a bad person and I'm not trying to." He looks over at Sakura with gentle brown eyes. "I'm sorry, Sakura-chan. If you really don't want to, you don't have to."

Sakura sighs again. "Look, it's nothing like you guys think. I only have the greatest respect in the world for the three of you and you're all on such a level that... well, it's a little intimidating to think about. Either I don't try my hardest because I'm nervous and it seems disrespectful to you guys, or I do try my hardest and all the planets align and there is some kind of awesome celestial event going on and I manage to land a blow..." Sakura rubs up and down her arm, suddenly nervous on how this will sound. "I could seriously hurt someone. I know how to control myself but... the three of you are so legendary. I just don't want to make a mistake or anything."

Sakura runs her fingers through her longer pink hair, making a mental note on just how long it's getting.

Hashirama brightens up immediately. "Is that what you're worried about? Aww, Sakura-chan, there is no need to be worried. You are an amazing medical shinobi, Sakura, I'm sure that everything will be fine. Okay?"

Sakura nods, shoulders sagging a bit in defeat. "Okay. Then, who's on who's team?" Why is it getting so hard to say no to the First? Oh, that would probably be why. He's the First-fucking-Hokage.

Hashirama is practically bouncing in excitement. "I wanted to be on your team, Sakura," he glances over at Tobirama and Madara, who were staring blankly back at him with almost two whole people length of empty space between them. His shoulders slump, looking depressed. "But, I doubt the two of them could work together so, pick your poison, Sakura. Tobirama or Madara?"

Sakura gives him an exasperated look. "It honestly doesn't matter to me."

Hashirama smiles, patting Sakura's shoulders, finally letting her go. "Excellent. Then I suppose I'll partner with Tobi, he'll be jealous if I picked Madara," Hashirama says teasingly, looking over at his brother. Tobirama rolls his eyes while Madara just starts walking onto the field, his strides long and sure. The battlefield was his playground, as it is for all legendary warriors. This is where he's meant to be. His lethality and grace was always present, Sakura noted, but the moment the battle was hanging over him like fresh meat to a hungry dog, both increased ten fold.

And Madara wasn't the only one that had such a shift. Hashirama and Tobirama did to. Sakura hadn't seen it Ryo and hadn't had the chance to see if anyone else had it yet either, but she knew from experience that Tsunade had such a switch, as did Kakashi. They could be the most dangerous people in the world and walk around like they are ready to break the world in half, but put a battlefield in front of them and it shifts their entire presence into something a hundred times more physically dangerous.

Such a thing wasn't the case for Sakura. She was no doubt a dangerous shinobi, she gives herself enough respect to acknowledge that, but she's not like any of the aforementioned people. There was a special presence of lethality and grace whenever they were placed in front of danger. Sakura has yet to learn how to separate the two personas. The blood thirsty shinobi willing and ready to kill and be killed, and the 17 year old girl that is still, in her own way, trying to find herself and her way back home.

Sakura follows after Madara, mentally laughing at the irony of all of this. Just months ago, she was battling the man that is now going to be her ally against the two Senju founders of her home village. Even in mock battles like there, where there is no killing and it's all about strutting one's stuff so to speak, Sakura has to work with Madara like he was the only person in the world she could trust. And he has to for Sakura too. Hashirama and Tobirama, being brothers and longtime battle partners, has an even steeper advantage compared to Sakura and Madara.

"We will demonstrate a two on two battle," Hashirama says to the crowd. "It's at this point that everyone can disperse and start having your own battles." Sakura's not sure if he was saying that just so everyone knew that they could leave, or if he honestly expected people to head off, but no one moved, even though there was murmurs of appreciation for the clan leader's time. Who would skip out on an opportunity to watch these three legendary warriors fight and not have to worry about dying? That's why Sakura wanted to watch.

But alas, the fates are not kind. As usual.

"What's the plan?" Sakura asks once Madara finally turns to her from the center of the field. "I'm sorry about you getting the short stick."

Madara waves her concern away. "We will utilize the natural disadvantage."

Sakura's eyebrow quirked up at that. Her voice coming out flat when she asks, "And what does that mean?"

Madara blinks, looking at her confused for a moment before shaking his head. "I didn't mean it like that," he says softly, rubbing the back of his head uncomfortably, letting out a little sigh. "I mean... Hashirama, honorable and empty headed Hashirama, will try to do his best to dance around his battle with you, which we can use to our advantage."

"He wouldn't fight me seriously," Sakura says. She doesn't know if she's insulted or relieved by such a thing. No, she doesn't want to fight to the death or anything, she definitely wouldn't win anyway, but she does want to be taken lightly. She is still a Shinobi and she has her pride.

"Perhaps," Madara says, shrugging his shoulders. "Honorable Hashirama would do his best to respect the Kunoichi side of you and the woman side of you. It'll be interesting to see how he pulls that off."

Sakura shakes her head. "Okay, fine. I'll take what I can get. So what's the plan? I'm not fast enough to compete with Tobirama-sama, and I'm not a jutsu specialist. I have only have a handful jutsu that aren't medically based." Sakura shrugs. "Sorry."

Madara shakes his head this time. "Don't apologize for your skill set. We can just work around it. I remember you said something about your Taijutsu when we first met. And that tree..."

Sakura nods and says, simply, "I'm strong."

"Perhaps there is something you can do with that..." Madara says, but doesn't sound too confident. They way he tilts his head, the hair that usually covers his right eye slides away and reveals it. Sakura watches as the deep black abysses disappear and the Sharingan spins to life. It has been a lot longer than Sakura realized since she had last seen the Sharingan. Even in a village made up with dozens of Uchiha, the Sharingan almost felt like a taboo thing. A sign of distrust. So no one used it as far as Sakura knew. Not even Aya. It mesmerizes Sakura for a moment.

Seeing the red wheel of death appearing in the Uchiha Patriarch's eyes brings Sakura's mind to a place she hasn't visited in a long time. Sasuke. The thought alone surprised her. She had thought about Ino and Naruto a lot. Hinata and Tenten too. She had even spared a few heartbroken thoughts for Neji, the friend she knew for certain she had lost. Yet, not yet, had her mind gone to the boy who she spent the greatest portion of her life pining over. A boy she was willing to sacrifice everything for.

Yet since she got here, she hasn't thought about him. Maybe once or twice, in the midst of other thoughts the boy she had loved would flicker across her mind, but there is no solid memory since she got here that she can recall really thinking about the boy. Somehow, even though the jerk she had decided - after he tried to kill her again - didn't matter anymore left her feeling bad for not having thought about him. He wasn't just the boy who would never love her. He was her teammate, her friend.

Why did that thought leave such a sour taste in her mouth?

She quickly shakes her head, trying to get her head back into the game. As bad as she felt for not giving all of her friends and family the proper thoughts they deserve from her, now wasn't the time for her to be doing that. Even if this wasn't a serious life or death battle, it was still a battle and someone could get hurt if she's not paying attention. Namely herself.

"If I can get my hands on either of them..." Sakura says slowly, lowering her voice so only he can hear her, "then, I'd probably be able to remove them from the field." Madara stares at her with mixed emotions across his face; disbelief, curiosity, maybe a bit of wonder. Sakura can almost imagine the look on his face when he realizes that she really isn't messing with him. "I will not win in a straight up fight, but I may be able to get one of them off the field, but that's only if I can get close."

"Then you go for Hashirama," Madara says, face falling back to a neutral look. "I've had enough spats with Tobirama to know how he works. His speed is legendary, even I can admit to that." Sakura nods in understanding.

"Are you two ready?" Hashirama calls, hands folded neatly in front of him. Tobirama is already in his battle armor, similar to the armor that Sakura can recall in fragments of her memories except that his long sleeve black shirt under his blue armor is replaced with a short sleeve black shirt. Everything else in the same.

"I am," Madara says.

Sakura nods, pulling up her gloves on a little bit more secure. "I am as well, Hashirama-sama."

Hashirama smiles, moving his right hand up his long white sleeves for a moment, touching a dark mark on his arm - undoubtedly a seal - before sending chakra into it and his armor appears around him, settling easily into place. Madara did the same, a seal on the back of his hand summons his own red armor onto his body, kicking up his hair a bit in the pop.

"Salma?" Hashirama says, looking over at the young Senju woman. "Would you do us the honors?"

Salma bows respectfully. "Yes, my lord." She holds her right hand up into the air. Sakura hears another pop next to her and Sakura sees something in the corner of her eye that makes her heart rate pick up. In Madara's hands is his signature gunbai fan and battle scythe.

For the first time in a long time, Sakura's knees start to tremble. In her mind's eye, she can see Obito wielding the legendary fan, swinging it around as if it were his when he was still playing the part of Madara. Even though it was just a fan, it was unique. It was capable of enhancing the chakra nature coming out of it with torrents of wind or fire. The edges of the fan are super sharp and easily able to cut through hundreds of people.

Sakura shivers, pulling herself away a bit, shifting ever-so-slightly away from Madara. She shakes herself trying to force her mind to focus. She takes a few deep breaths before falling into her offensive crouch. She's going to have to be quick on her feet. As kind and friendly as Hashirama was, he was still a powerful shinobi that was revered as the God of Shinobi. One doesn't get that title for being a push over.

In some ways - whether it's intentional or not - it's smart to be as disarming as Hashirama is. When talking to him Sakura often forgets that he's probably the most powerful shinobi in this time. Sakura has to keep murmuring to herself as she stares at the brown haired man directly in front of her, under her breath, "Take him seriously. Don't be fooled."

"Hajime!" Salma calls.

Sakura waits a fraction of a second, catching Madara shooting past her like lightning. His feet barely touch the ground as he swiftly closes the distance between himself and Tobirama. Tobirama, sword in hand, meets him half way. They clash and Sakura wonders if she actually saw a shockwave pass between them or if she had just imagined it. They both spun and twirled around each other in a deadly dance.

Clang, clang, clang. Jumping around each other so fast that Sakura could barely make out what was happening.

"Sakura-chan!" Hashirama calls, pulling Sakura's attention over to the long brown haired Senju and blinks in shock, realizing he was just a few feet in front of her and closing he distance fast. "Battle time, my friend!"

Sakura ducks just in time to avoid the kick aimed for her head. She scrambled under his leg and runs for her life, trying to put as much difference between herself and the Senju clan leader. She spins around to see him leisurely standing where she used to be moments before, he was staring at her with curiously deceptive eyes, giving her a moment to catch up with what was going on. Which she was thankful for. Focus, Skaura, damn it!

Sakura quickly calculates a plan in her head, not feeling very confident before pulling out a kunai and running back at him. She swipes at his face, which he easily avoids, ducking down and swiping at her feet with his own. Sakura jumps up, jutting out with one foot toward Hashirama's chest. He leans back to avoid it. They trade blows for a few minutes. Punch, kick, doge, jump, spin, back up, switch stances, block, side step, advance.

It took a quick pause in the battle for the pink haired girl to notice the fluidity of her own body. Battling against Hashirama was like an eloquent dance. Hashirama and Sakura were the dancers and their battle was the steps, the movements. Tobirama and Madara's sword, scythe and fan clanking, thwacking and clinking off of each other was their ballad. And it was all surreal.

Hashirama closes the distance this time, intent on keeping the dance going. So they continued for a few more minutes on top of however long they had already been fighting. The future First must have sensed that Sakura was ready to move on to the more epic parts of the battle for he smiles easily. For the most part, their Taijutsu bout was more of them feeling each other out. Get a feel for how the other moved, but it was on such a subconscious level that it's left Sakura surprised. She's not the person that is elegant and beautiful in a fight.

That's right. Sakura isn't the delicate flower, dancing soothingly in the breeze. If anything, she's a tornado. Swift, unpredictable and very dangerous if one gets caught in the cross fire.

Hashirama must have seen the shift in Sakura, when her stance changed. She squared her shoulders and leveled out her chin. A quick flicker of the eye over to where the Uchiha clan leader and the younger brother of the First showed a flurry of moving colors, spinning around each other trying to get the better of the other. Their clothes and armor are barely able to keep up, Sakura doubts that the civilians can see much of what's going on. Perhaps that is why Hashirama was taking it slow. This is a show after all.

Sometime during their match, Sakura had lost the kunai in her hand and it alarms her a bit to realize how much on autopilot she was. Sakura charges, pulling her hand back for a punch, and like so many times before, Hashirama is easily able to side step her. But Sakura wasn't going for the punch. At the last moment, she pushes chakra to her hand and lets it graze against his right thigh as she flies past him.

She turns to face Hashirama right as he lets out a grunt of pain and falls to a knee, looking surprised. There is murmurs in the crowd behind him, wonder what could have happened. Sakura shakes her head, forcing herself to forget that they are there.

As if on instinct, as soon as Hashirama hit the ground, Tobirama was at his side, grabbing him under the arm and scanning his body for injuries.

"What's wrong?" He asks, gruffly, eyes flickering between Hashirama and the gracefully approaching Madara. He walked slow and smooth, each step precise and purposeful. His dangerous red eyes focused on Tobirama flickering between chilled detachment and near unrivaled rage. Something lurked beneath those red depths that wanted desperately to destroy Tobirama and it appeared as though it was warring inside of Madara.

Fear crawled up Sakura's spine for a moment. In three second intervals, Madara had the presence of the person she stood before and battle years and years in the future. Sakura has given out her fair share of dangerous looks, and has been on the receiving end of some really bad ones herself. But never before, not even in the future, had she noticed just how dangerous Madara was looking at Tobirama. If Sakura had to use one word to describe it, the first word that came was poisonous. 

But the look in his eyes kept flickering back and forth between being the Madara Uchiha she's coming to know and the person that he was in the future. The person who just wanted everything to stop. Sakura was watching the person she was coming to like turn into the person she probably feared the most. And it terrified her. Sakura, perhaps, had forgotten what truly mattered here and what she should have been looking for. Madara wasn't a monster now, that much she was able to discern, but he wasn't in her original timeline either. And he changed then too.

Thankfully, somehow, whatever it was that was changing him, hadn't won yet. He was obviously still fighting it, whether he knew it or not. His facial expressions never changed, just his eyes. The ever dangerous Sharingan.

"I'm okay," Hashirama says, halting the frightening shifting in Madara's eyes and the Uchiha clan leader remains, the dark look disappearing into the abyss. "I..." Hashirama takes Tobirama's arm, pulling himself up but when he tentatively tries to put his weight on it, it easily yields. Hashirama half lifts it, wiggling his ankle experimentally, trying to figure out what's wrong. "I can't really move my right leg..."

Madara circles around the two brothers to stand next to Sakura. His eyes are scanning Hashirama's favored leg. Hashirama leans again Tobirama, rubbing his thigh, eyebrows raised curiously.

"You..." His voice is soft, as if in disbelief. "You severed the muscles in my leg," he says shocked, eyes widening. "Yet the flesh is undamaged...fascinating."

"Definitely," Tobirama says dryly, "especially during a battle."

Hashirama nods in agreement. Either he didn't notice the sarcasm in Tobirama's voice, or he didn't care to address it, because he's still looking at his leg curiously. After a moment he looks up at Sakura and smiles.

"I do believe this fight just got a lot more interesting." His kind, dark eyes light up in interest. Tobirama lets go of Hashirama's arm and the older man balances on his one good foot, holding up his other one slightly.

"If by interesting, you mean harder, then yeah," Madara says, black tomos spinning around his pupil. He sounds pleased.

Hashirama laughs. "Yeah, that too."

Sakura shoots a look over at the Uchiha clan leader trying to see if he was still warring with himself, but he's calm and relaxed and whatever was happening as he was approaching stopped. Because of Hashirama? Sakura's eyes flicker back to the Senju clan leader. He's quickly trying to adjust his stance to accommodate the loss of his right leg. Once he's appeared to got it, he turns back to Sakura.

"I truly will have to pick your brain apart after this is all send and done, Sakura-chan. I have to know how you did that," Hashirama says, adjusting his battle stance a bit to keep the weight off his bad leg.

Sakura nods. Tobirama takes his place right next to Hashirama and the battle continues. But this part is a lot more hecktic than before. Tobirama and Hashirama are staying close to each other, forcing Sakura, who is the smallest of them, to bounce around in-between them, avoiding strikes on both sides, while Madara was circling around on the outside.

Hashirama has slowed down considerable, trying to adjust to his handicap. When Sakura's hand glows again, flying out toward his left leg this time, the future Firsts hands fly together, interlacing. A very familiar hand seal. Sakura releases the jutsu and jumps up, out from between the two brothers and away from the ground as quickly as she can having a bad feeling about what was coming next. She was right.

Wood broke out of the ground and shot after her, and Madara, who also put distance between himself and the brown haired man. Tobirama quickly closed the distance and continued their battle. When Sakura hits the ground, she runs for it, ducking and dodging the pillars of wood forcing distance between them. At the last second before hitting the tree line, Sakura spins around and jumps up onto it, pulling five kunai from her pocket, running along the wood back toward Hashirama. She quickly wraps the kunai with bomb tags and throws two toward Hashirama, on the ground next to his bad leg.

He diverts his attention for a split second, sees the bomb tags sizzling away and jumps off with his only good leg, only making it a few feet before doing some more hands signs and an earth barrier wraps around him, protecting him from the explosion.

Sakura lands on the protruding bubble of earth, feeling with her chakra to confirm that he's no longer in there. Head hunter? Sakura jumps down to the ground, looking around, mentally recalling the last time she was in this position. Sakura smiles a bit. It's now, or never.

Sakura twists around to look at Madara. "Madara-sama," she calls. His head tilts slightly in her direction but he doesn't take his eyes off of Tobirama. "Jump!"

With that, the prized student of the Slug Princess Tsunade brings her fist up, charging it with Chakra and slamming it down on the ground, feeling the earth shatter and yield beneath her strength with a triumphant yell, "Shannaro!"


	10. The Show

In the short time that Sakura has known Hashirama, she has never seen him move so fast. The ground cracks and splinters, groaning in pain beneath Sakura's strength and Hashirama comes flying out of the rubble like his ass is on fire. He hits the ground and scrambles away a few feet before turns around and staring at Sakura with large saucer-like eyes, looking a mixture of horrified and shocked.

She sort of expected that look, it's usually the look she ends up getting, but seeing it on the face of someone that she admires so much is kind of jarring. It was funny when it was Kakashi's face, but Hashirama's face is hilarious. It takes a lot of Sakura's will power not to bust out laughing at the look on his face. When her gaze slides over to Tobirama and Madara, Sakura really couldn't control herself.

Tobirama's usually narrow red eyes were wide and his jaw was slacked, his signature sword, the Raijin, was dragging across the dirt as he stumbles to a stop in what was probably an epic charge toward his Uchiha opponent. But nothing was as funny as the stupefied look on Madara's face. His battle fan was held over his head in a downward strike when Sakura cracked the planet in half and now his balance is teetering with the weight, until it slides out of his hand and hits the ground hard. The crowd of shinobi and civilians let out yells of fear and scrambled back even though Hashirama was in the most danger.

Hashirama's right left was half hanging down into the destroyed earth, his eyes huge. His jaw was half way down his chest, opening and closing, as if trying to understand what had just happened to him. All three of the legendary founders were staring as Sakura as if she was the Shinigami incarnate. That, or he was floating behind her, waiting for her to say the world and drag their souls into his gut.

"Found you, Hashirama-sama," Sakura says playfully, she couldn't help herself. This was a game, and she was having too much fun now. Perhaps she was overthinking it before. Even with a bum leg, he managed to escape danger pretty quickly. She has to applaud him. She knew he was an amazing shinobi, but to be able to of moved at those speeds, with the damage she did to his leg? Amazing.

"Am I dead, Sakura-chan?" Hashirama finally asks, chest heaving. Sakura raises slowly from her striking position at the opposite of the large crater. She lets out a little laugh when all three men flinch.

"No, Hashirama-sama, you're not dead," Sakura says, unable to believe how badly these men were taking her strength.

"Oh, and here I was worried my heart had either stopped beating... or it was beating so fast I could no longer feel it..." he says softly, before whipping his head around toward his slack jawed little brother. "Switch opponents, Tobi!"

Tobirama, who was staring at the crater, then to Sakura, trying to do the math in his head, and understand what had happened, finally closed his mouth when Hashirama spoke to him. Tobirama glares at him. "Hell no."

"I'm scared," Hashirama whined, pushing himself up onto his one good leg. "Besides, Madara will get jealous if I ignore him anymore."

"No," Madara says, slowly pulling himself from his shock to look over at Hashirama. "No, Hashirama, I would never dare pull you away from your fight. That would be disrespectful to Sakura," he says devilishly, smiling wickedly.

"But-" Hashirama says, looking horrified.

"Finish what you started, you big baby," Madara says. Hashirama gives them both a droll look before glancing over at Sakura from over his shoulder.

"You know," he says slowly, pushing himself to his feet, still keeping off his bad leg, "I've been doing the calculations in my head, you know, since I narrowly evaded Shinigami-sama's grasp," Madara rolls his eyes at Hashirama's theatrics, "and it is impossible for someone as tiny as you to make... well, that." He gestures to the large crater that separates them.

Sakura nods slowly, unable to hide her amusement. "Oh yeah? Would you like another demonstration?"

Hashirama blinks. "What?"

Sakura leaps high into the air in an arch, pointing her leg toward the future First. The horror that crosses the brown haired man's face was comical before he leaps away with his one good leg and a pillar of wood to put distance between them. Madara and Tobirama even cleared the area as fast as they could, but she could feel the Sharingan, and more than one pair belonging to the patriarch Uchiha, on her.

Sakura hits the ground with a thump, but didn't put any of her chakra or enhanced strength behind it. She grins playfully at Hashirama whose face was slightly pale for a moment. "It is a show, after all, right Lord Hashirama?" She asks teasingly.

Hashirama, big brown eyes wide, blinks a few times in question before grinning. He manages to hide all the horror from his face and nods slowly. "That, you are correct about, my pink haired friend." He falls down onto his butt, and half crosses his legs. "You make me have to cheat, my friend. Hate me not, for while this is a show, I do have my pride." He winks but Sakura doesn't really understand it. Does that mean he has no pride? That he won't actually take this seriously like he wants people to assume? What?

Sakura didn't know, but when he started to do hand signs, she knew immediately that he couldn't continue. She quickly closes the distance but right as she was three or four feet away, she heard Madara call out, something that sounded like, "Clone" which made no sense to Sakura the first nano-second, but when the second one rolled around, she understood, and by then, it was too late. Another Hashirama, made completely out of wood, appears out of nowhere, grabbing Sakura and throwing her a safe distance away from the original.

When she regained her footing, silently cursing herself for forgetting something else the man was famous for - his wood clone technique -and looks up just in time to see the clone right on top of her, not at all hindered by the real Hashirama's injured leg. Once again the dance began again. They spin, twirl, side-step, back step, turn, strike, block, jump, crouch, back step, spin, jump back, once more.

In between the step, Sakura spots another Hashirama in front of the real one, acting like a second line of defense. He's going to make it as hard as he can for her to get close. Now he's sitting back, watching with an analytical eye, sending the occasional glance Tobirama and Madara's way. Perhaps to make sure they weren't planning to fight to the death. Sakura has noticed, with relative ease, that Madara and Tobirama do not like each other. Sakura wouldn't say that it's shocking, but it's still a little strange to see.

Madara and Tobirama don't appear to have any issues with anyone else of the opposite clans, but a serious issue with each other. Sakura wonders if there is some sort of story behind that. A part of Sakura recognizes that none of it is her business, but at the same time, she can't help but be curious. And yes, she has heard what curiosity did to the cat. But still, since she began to learn things about these men that not many people remembered, or knew in her time, makes her a bit greedy about them. Her hunger for knowledge certainly knows how to rear it's ugly head.

A particularly hard kick to her chest, blocked by her arms creating an 'x' in front of it that sent her skidding back a couple of feet, pulled her back into reality. A split second decision and the space between Sakura and the wood clone required, made the next move possible, and ultimately greatly worth it. When the Hashirama clone closes the distance, she lets him, taking a swift, and painful, kick to the left ribs - no doubt bruising them - she grabs hold of the red breast plate of his armor, before pulling her hand back, yelling "Shannaro!" one more time, before punching him hard in the chest and sending him flying away.

The second reaction was almost greater than the first. Both Hashiramas watch the third go flying over their heads and into the forest behind them, hitting the ground hard before bouncing high into the air before hitting the ground. When they heard the soft thud of the other Hashirama hitting the ground, the other two flinched with looks of absolute horror.

Tobirama and Madara both falter again, staring in the direction of the other Hashirama clone.

"Oh my Kami," the real Hashirama says with a mixture of playful horror and actual horror in his voice and on his face, as he turned back to Sakura. "He was alive all the way to the end of the line. You broke everything in his body but his right femur! He did nothing wrong! He wasn't really hurting anybody!" Sakura raises an eyebrow amused. "He lived only a few seconds... and Tobirama," Hashirama looks over at his little brother, who slowly drags wide red eyes over to the brown haired Senju, "his last words were, 'tell Tobirama, I love him.'"

Tobirama scowls at him, breaking his surprised look just for Hashirama. "'Is nothing serious to you, Hashirama?"

"But I am serious," Hashirama pouts. He shakes his head, clearing it to look over at Sakura and slowly pull himself to his feet. "Well, I don't want to die today, so I think we end it here, aye brothers?"

Tobirama sheathes his sword, letting out a huff of air while Madara sends his battle scythe and gunbai fan away. Both of them relax from their battle stances and straighten up. People begin clapping slowly, as if surprised at the abrupt end to the match, not sure who was the winner.

"Do you see what I'm talking about?" Sakura asks, putting her hands on her hips. "It's a lot harder to hold back against powerful opponents like yourselves."

"Yes, well," Hashirama grins, looking relaxed again. "Thank you for the bout, Sakura-chan. And for scaring greater respect for the fairer sex into me."

Sakura barks out a laugh, walking over to the future First, kneeling down right in front of him, and reaching out for his injured leg. He shifts back a bit, so that she can see his leg. She touches the cloth, noting the unnatural bumps beneath the skin for the ripped muscles. Sakura underestimated the damage she had done, this had to hurt like hell, yet the First had yet to complain about it.

Sakura pauses a moment to glance up at the First Hokage, but he's looking elsewhere, suddenly appearing embarrassed. Sakura stares at him blankly for a moment, wondering what the look was for. Had he forgotten he was hurt? Obviously not, since he hadn't accidently put weight on it since he got the injury. Was he embarrassed that he hadn't healed the wound himself? He is a legendary healer, but something about that just didn't seem right. Hashirama never really appeared to care much for his own image in how he was viewed by others. Could Sakura have been wrong?

"You can sit, Hashirama-sama," Sakura says slowly.

Hashirama glances down at Sakura again, scratching the back of his head and letting out a little laugh, but it felt forced and made Sakura more curious about the man's odd behavior. Well, Hashirama Senju was anything but normal but he was acting more odd than before.

"Oh," he says, looking over at Tobirama and Madara, both also suddenly appeared a bit uncomfortable. "Oh," he says again, but this time to them, before plopping down onto his butt like a very large child. Now that he's on Sakura's level, he appears normal. "What next, Sakura-sama?"

Sakura blushes at the title, surprised to have been called that by the First, but quickly hides her embarrassment with a glare. "Pay close attention, Hashirama-sama, for I will show this to you only once."

Like the childish young man that he is, the future First solutes to her and nods, "Yes, ma'am!" He folds his good leg beneath him, letting the other one stick out toward Sakura. "Show me your medical wisdom, Sakura-sensei."

Relieved that he's acting normal again, Sakura reaches out and takes the two tan hands and places them on his thigh. One above the severed muscles and one below it. She places hers over his, and with a quick glance up at the future First to see that he was in fact paying attention, Sakura sends healing chakra to her hands and pushes the muscles back together. After just a split second, Hashirama follows suit, sending his own chakra to his hands.

Where Sakura's healing chakra took on a light green color, Hashirama's was a deep forest green. And just immersing her hand in his chakra, even while he's probably not even trying, a small cut Sakura got on her hand while making breakfast earlier that morning that she didn't feel the need to waste chakra trying to heal, was closing up.

It was strange to think, and under any other circumstance, Sakura wouldn't, but the thought came to her: Was Hashirama as powerful - medically wise - as he was known for in Sakura's time.

It was a crazy, insane thought that Sakura quickly dismissed. But ask they were sealing Hasirama's muscles back together, the thought just kept jabbing at the back of her head. He was no doubt exceedingly powerful, especially in his healing arts. But could that be because his chakra has is that of healing nature, and not just because he's worked hard to be a medical shinobi?

His chakra naturally heals without much thought or action on his own part? Sakura's chakra was guiding his, and at first it was clumsy, strange, as if it was a rampaging horse, healing without actually knowing what it was healing. That was a powerful asset to have, but also dangerous. If Skaura's right, then he hasn't been healing people with his own knowledge, but rather with his body's own natural ability to do it. He's as untrained as Aya or Salma but no one could tell because his chakra heals naturally.

Perhaps Hashirama's deep interest in all of Sakura's medical endeavors has to do with the fact that he's not just learning upon skills he already has - he's learning some things for the first time! Sakura prayed that she wasn't right in her somewhat scary presumptions. Sakura is going to definitely have to keep a close eye on the Senju clan leader. His healing abilities, while incredible, are dangerous if not tempered a reigned in.

Sakura scoots close to the side of his leg, needing to use a bit more strength to push the thick, strong muscles together, before sealing all of them back together cleanly. Sakura then takes a moment to check over his leg, bending it up and placing her hand on the underside of his thigh to make sure all of the muscles were sealed together perfectly before standing up, dusting off her backside before holding both hands out to the brown haired man. Hashirama looks up at her curiously for a moment before taking them and pushing himself to his feet.

At first he didn't put much, if any, weight on his right leg, but when he did, it was experimental until he was certain it would hold all of his body weight. Then he smiles boyishly as Sakura and patted the top of her head. "You are such a good girl, Sakura-chan! I'm so proud of you!"

"Proud of us," Sakura says, not minding the treatment. "We both did it."

"You're right," he says, then laughs. "Yay us!"

Sakura holds up a hand for a high five. Hashirama stares at her hand for a moment, wondering what she wanted from him. Sakura blinks in surprise at the man's blank look. "Slap your palm against mine," Sakura says, sounding ridiculous to herself.

Hashirama gives her a weird look, but obeys. He stares at her, holding his hand up a few inches from hers after their high five, wondering if he had somehow done whatever she wanted right. Sakura laughs, slapping his palm back. "It's congratulations!" A pause, then, "High five!"

This time, Hashirama slaps her palm, and smiles. "That's... interesting. It's still for celebration?"

Sakura shrugs. "I suppose. But don't think too much about it. It's just a more fun way of saying good job. Nothing much more to it." Hashirama nods in understanding, smiling.

"I like it."

"Good," Sakura says.

"Alright," Hashirama says, turning to the crowd, "the demonstration is done. You all may start your matches!"

All the shinobi and civilians alike bow before splintering off in other directions. Most of them huddling together and casting glances over at the three founders and the pink haired girl as they go, whispering amongst themselves. No doubt their battle will be talked about for a while. Sakura rubs the back of her neck, running her fingers through her long pink locks before lifting it up and waving her hand to blow cool air against the back of her neck. She needs to get her hands on a ribbon to tie her hair back or something. Cut it, maybe.

Sakura looks over at Madara. "Draw?" He nods, walking over to her and stopping about a foot in front of her. Sakura looks up at him with raised eyebrows, curiously. "Yes, Madara-sama?"

"I knew it was smart to believe you," he says softly. Sakura stares at him blankly, not understanding, until it just came to her. That day in the forest, when she punched a tree down. She told him that she punched it, and he just believed her. It was flattering at the time, but now it just warms her entire body. It was like flattering times one hundred.

Sakura sways back and forth from one foot to the other, trying to hide her embarrassment. "Thank you, Madara-sama," she says, lightly scratching her cheek, hoping that it wasn't obvious. She smiles shyly.

"I have learned a lot today," Madara says, voice still soft. "Is it presumptuous of me to ask for your help later on, when you're free? I hope I'm not overstepping my boundaries. There is someone that I was wondering if you could help..." Madara suddenly looks nervous. He reaches up and rubs his large, messy black mane, avoiding Sakura's eyes.

Sakura tilts her head. "Is someone hurt?" She straightens up, glancing around for someone hurt. The crowd that was watching them had finally broken up, people heading off to have their own fights or witness them. Before most else, Sakura is a medic, and Madara coming to her with an issue is like a once-in-a-blue-moon type thing.

Madara doesn't answer right away, which eases Sakura a bit. If someone was badly hurt, then there would have been more urgency from the slightly uneasy Uchiha patriarch. Because he isn't jumping the gun, then maybe it's not too bad.

"It's alright for now, enjoy the festival. It was your idea, after all," Madara finally says, albeit slowly, as if testing his words. His eyes flicker over to Hashirama and Tobirama, who were approached by the Akimichi and Sarutobi clan leaders. Hashirama laughs about something, throwing his head back to let the sound out without the slightest bit of embarrassment. But it catches Madara's attention, and he just stares at the future First in silence.

"Madara-sama..." Sakura says softly.

Madara looks down at her and Sakura lost her words. She didn't know what she wanted to say. Was it about this mysterious hurt person? Was it about the way he reacted to Tobirama? Was it the way he reacted to Hashirama? Without a doubt, whatever was warring inside of Madara during their battle was somehow soothed by Hashirama, but that in and of itself is a mystery. Why was that? What even was that? Sakura didn't know, nor did she know how to really bring it up.

"What is it?" Madara asks, after Sakura kept quiet, too busy with her thoughts.

"Just..." Sakura hesitates, then says, "just let me know when you want me to look at whomever it is you want me to look at, okay? This is going to be going on for days. I can find some time to sneak away." Did that sound as strange to him as it did her? It sounds like they are planning some kind of shady, secret rendezvous. But Madara doesn't react one way or the other.

"Thank you, Sakura," Madara says, tilting his head slightly so his other eye is revealed. "I appreciate your willingness to be of assistance to me. Thank you, again."

Sakura smiles, happy to see that whatever was wrong with Madara during the battle, that vileness in his eyes, was nowhere to be found. Sakura knows she has no healing nature for him like Hashirama appears to, but thankfully she's not some sort of trigger like Tobirama. So at least she's got that going for her, but it's still a little concerning. Sakura's just not sure she knows how to approach the situation with Madara, but she also acknowledges that she's not important enough to be privy to that information.

And that burns a little bit.

Sakura offers Madara a small smile, which he tentatively, as if both uncomfortable and not used tot he action, smiles back with an even tinier tilt upward of the lips.

 

Sakura spent a good portion of time, bouncing between battle to battle, participating in a few herself, most of which she won, except for a battle against a familiar Uchiha. The somber faced, soft spoken, Keiga Uchiha. Sakura remembers back to when she first got to Konoha in this time, and offered to help the medical shinobi with their injured, this Uchiha had called her "ma'am" in his soft voice and got her shoes for her. A true gentlemen.

And he was one badass fighter. It was too late for Sakura to notice the color of his ribbon. White for 100 points. And he really lived up to the expectation of a white ribbon. He was smart enough to put great distance between Sakura and he, and was sure to keep his Sharingan active and using jutsu. Sakura didn't have a lot of ways to counter-act jutsu flying at her.

Then he swiftly closed the distance and put her in a position where she couldn't freely swing her limbs before he put her in her place and made her submit. Sakura was greatly impressed by his skills and effectiveness, and then his humble attitude. When the match was over and the audience that was watching began cheering, he lowered his head and blushed, mumbling that he wouldn't need any praise.

"Thanks for the fight," Sakura says, walking off the field next to the Uchiha.

"You as well, ma'am," Keigo says, tipping his head a bit respectfully.

"Keigo-san," Sakura says slowly, looking up at him. His short, wild black hair is rustling a bit in the breeze, as he walks. "I think that you are older than I am. There is no reason for you to be calling me "ma'am". Sakura is just fine."

Keigo reaches up and scratches the back of his head, looking embarrassed. "Yes, ma'am..."

"Keigo-san," Sakura says slowly.

Keigo glances down at her before clearing his throat. "Um, sorry, S...Sakura-san..."

Sakura rolls her eyes, figuring that was the best she was going to get from him. She just smiles up at him and turns to head into the village to see if there is anything that she can buy. She spots Salma in the crowd, moving on with her arm looped through her brother's looking over her shoulder at Sakura, winking and smiling kindly before moving on, pausing only to congratulate Keigo on his victory before moving on.

Sakura walks around the shops, browsing. There is dozens of shops opened up, up and down what would later be known as the market place. She buys a few necessities that she hadn't realized she missed. Bath beads, tea leaves, a few hair ribbons for when she's working, some food supplies and recipes and scrolls, things like that. It was nice to put more things in her house. It made it look more like home. Slowly, but surely, Sakura's entire house, with the exception of the extra bedroom, is being filled with things that make it appear like someone is actually living in it.

Sakura turned in her ribbons to add to her score before taking her new items home.

As she nears her house she spots a familiar back of the future Second Hokage, standing in front of her home, his back facing her. Sakura tilts her head as she walks up to him.

"Can I help you out with something, Tobirama-sama?" Sakura asks.

"I noticed that you slipped away earlier. I was wondering... is now a good time?" he asks, turning slightly to see Sakura's hands full of her new items.

Sakura nods. "Sure. What can I do for you?" Sakura juggles all of her purchases into her left arm, dropping two of the scrolls onto the deck before deactivating the seals on her house and opening the door. She turns around to grab the scrolls but Tobirama is already holding them. "Thank you. Want to come in?"

Tobirama looks hesitant, which is strange to see on his face, but nods slowly. "Yes, thank you."

Sakura walks in, leaving the door open. Tobirama follows her in, softly shutting the door behind himself and slips off his sandals, laying them neatly next to Sakura's boots that were half-hazardously kicked off with her arms being preoccupied. Sakura quickly puts the items around her house where they belong before coming back into the main living space and taking the two scrolls from Tobirama, and straightening up her shoes.

"Would you like some tea, Tobirama-sama?" Sakura asks, putting the scrolls on the table and walking over to the kettle Salma got for her, pouring some water in it. He may not want tea, but she wanted some.

"Please," he says formally.

"Jasmine alright?" she asks, not looking over her shoulder at the awkwardly shifting future kage in the middle of the room.

"Jasmine is fine, thank you."

Sakura stares at him for a moment before nodding toward the table. "Would you like to sit, Tobirama-sama? No need to wait on ceremony, I'll be right with you." She turns back around to put the tea bag into the water before walking over to the fire pit and working on the fire. She puts some wood into it and before she can dig around for some matches, Tobirama is right next to her, doing a few simple handsigns and breathing out a small fireball, igniting the fire. Sakura watches him go sit back at the table without a word to her, before she puts the kettle on it's perch over the fire and walking over to the pillow across from the white haired man, sitting down.

"Thank you," she says. Tobirama nods once, but doesn't respond. "I didn't know you could do fire style jutsu. Must be a pain, being water nature."

Tobirama shrugs. "I know a few jutsu in all styles. Best to be diverse."

"What if I had a fire style jutsu?" Sakura asks, smiling playfully. "I could have just done that myself."

Tobirama raises his eyes up to Sakura's. "I saw you reaching for something in your pocket. While I don't doubt the possibility of you having a fire style jutsu, I have a strong reason to believe that you don't because if you did, you wouldn't have reached for the matches I suspect are in your pocket. You have pretty full chakra reserves and even if fire isn't your nature, performing a simple jutsu like the one I did wouldn't have depleted it."

Sakura lets out a laugh. That analyses of Sakura's actions is such a Tobirama-like thing to do, that Sakura couldn't help but laugh. "Somehow, doesn't surprise me. But there is still a little flaw in your theory."

Tobirama interlaces his fingers onto the table in front of him. "Oh? Explain."

Sakura shakes her head, still smiling. "While I could have had a fire style jutsu in my arsenal and the chakra in my reserves to perform it, I could have wanted to save that chakra for a battle or something tonight."

Tobirama nods slowly, staring at her for a moment in thought. "While possible, it is highly unlikely. If you needed the chakra, you would have eaten the chakra stimulant pill that you've been rolling around in your palm for the past two weeks." Sakura looks at him surprised. "Yes, I noticed. I make it my responsibility to know what's going on with assets of the village." A pause, then, "It's different then the first one, yes?"

Sakura's smile widens a bit. "Yeah," she reaches into her pouch and pulls out the soldier pill and hands it to him. "How's your chakra?"

He shrugs. "Fine." He studies the small, quarter sized ball, even bringing it to his nose to sniff it.

Sakura puts her elbow onto the table and props her chin on it. "Have you tried the other pill yet?" He shakes his head, still eyeing the ball. "Then eat that one. It's more potent, but at least you'll know what it does."

Tobirama gives her a blank stare, as if daring her to take him for a fool. Sakura reaches over and rips the ball in half, letting him keep the other half and pops it into her mouth, chewing a few times before swallowing. She makes a face and shakes herself, suppressing a gag. "Ugh, yeah, that really does taste like shit. I need to learn how to make these taste better. Maybe I could take a class from the Akimichi? Do you think they'd do that?"

Tobirama gives her a dry look. "I'm not sure, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to ask." He pauses a moment to watch Sakura. Probably making sure she didn't swell up like a balloon and die or turn green and puke up her guts. Ye of so little faith.

"Try it," Sakura says. "The most dangerous part of that half recipe is the horrible taste. If you can safely suppress your gag reflex, then you should be fine."

Tobirama takes the risk the eats the other half of the soldier pill. He somehow manages to keep his face neutral, even when his throat constricts for a moment, before it relaxes. Sakura laughs out a "nasty, right?" but before he could respond, his chakra levels jump back up to full. His eyes widen a bit before they return neutral, making a mental note of what happened, before nodding his thanks.

They sit in silence for a couple of minutes, just staring t one another. It was only disrupted by the kettle going off. Sakura goes and prepares their tea, putting a cup right in front of Tobirama. He takes a sip, as if worried that Sakura's cooking has somehow made it's way into her tea brewing, but then takes a bigger sip before pulling his hands back and folding them once more.

"I wanted to talk to you about the yang seal we were discussing a few weeks ago."

Sakura drinks her tea. "Really? I didn't know you were still thinking about that? I mean, I'm thankful that you are, I just didn't expect it."

"I told you I would help," Tobirama says, sounding slightly insulted. "I'm a man of my word."

Sakura holds her hands up in surrender. "No, sorry. I didn't mean to insult you. What about it did you want to talk about?" She grabs her tea and takes another long sip, smiling over the rim at the white haired man.

Tobirama lets out a small breath. "Well, I believe I've crafted a seal that will be able to help you." He pulls out a scroll and opens it up before turning it toward Sakura to get a good look at it. What caught Sakura's attention right away was the color. It's a light blue, like the sky. It reminds Sakura of the nuclear fusion sign. Three circles tilted sideways a bit and interlaced with a dot in the center of the three circles.

Sakura runs the pads of her fingers over the seal in awe. "It's beautiful. I could never have imagined anything better myself. Thank you, Tobirama-sama, thank you."

"It does what you want. It stores up Yang chakra and compresses it," he explains. Sakura smiles at him, both flattered and happy. Who else can say they have a seal crafted specifically for them by the Second Hokage? Not many, as far as Sakura knows. It is really an honor.

"After this event is over with," Tobirama says, taking a drink of his tea, "then I can place the seals, if you want. Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with a way that didn't require a seal on all the limps. My apologies."

Sakura waves her hand around dismissively. "I couldn't have asked for anything more. Thank you, again."

Tobirama nods, tapping his finger tips against the table in thought. "You're welcome. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to delve deeper into this idea. I, um, get a bit... keyed in on things when it has to do with my interests. I hope I didn't overstep any boundaries..."

Sakura shakes her head. "No way, you did nothing wrong. You really saved me from making a lifelong mistake, I fear. The last thing I'd want to do is somehow mess up a seal and then be dumb enough to put it on my body. So thanks again! Truly."

Tobirama takes a drink of his tea, before nodding to the pink haired girl. "You're welcome."

 

"Wow," Sakura says, walking alongside Madara away from the feast that the Akimichi had made for the second night of the festival. She rubs her full stomach lethargically. "That was the best food I've had in a while. You?"

Madara nods, brushing the hair in front of his eye out of the way, only for it to fall back into place. "Yeah. They are very talented cooks. I could get old and fat off of their cooking."

Sakura barks out a laugh, not having expected that from the usually stoic, and quiet Uchiha. He flushes a bit and looks away, probably not used to being as open with others either. It does make Sakura happy to know that he's relaxing around her. She has to keep an eye on him, her future depends on it, but maybe by being his friend, she can help deter the possible bad things that lead to him leaving the Leaf and later wanting to destroy it.

Looking at him now, he doesn't seem bad at all. He really isn't a bad guy at all. Sakura can't believe that he ends up turning into the monster Sakura later came to know. He was admittedly a bit awkward, but he seems very genuine. There's no charades. No mater scheme to destroy the world. No Moon Eye plan. Nothing of the likes. Right now, he's just a straight up guy that is just trying to see the unification of the clans through. Whatever bad happened to scorn him, hasn't happened yet.

Except there is something that Sakura can't over-look. There is, without a doubt, something raging war inside of Madara. Something that Sakura hadn't seen in the slightest until the day prior. Sakura had no reason to believe, other than her past, or this future, that Madara was going to become homicidal. He was quiet and reserved and even a bit playful when it came to Hashirama, but during the battle with Tobirama, the person he was going to become shone through. But now he's back to being the person Sakura has come to know.

Today, Sakura and Madara were part of another tag team, but this time she was Tobirama's partner and was going against Hashirama and Madara. Sakura took on Madara, which was a little - or a lot - weird, especially when Hashirama stopped taking the fight seriously half way through and started dancing around the battle field. They made sure to be away from the crowd so when the battle ended with them all just sitting around talking.

Hashirama just sat there, running his fingers through the grass, muttering something under his breath before laying down onto his back and staring up at the sky. Sakura had thought it before, and she thought about it again at that moment. Hashirama appears to be exhausted. He's running a village with next to no help. He's trying to keep everyone happy while trying to get a village off it's feet. Madara and Tobirama must have felt the same, because both of them looked down at the long brown haired Senju with identical looks of unhappiness.

But while Madara and Sakura walk away from the feast Sakura feels like she has to ask, "Is Hashirama-sama as stressed as I think he is?"

Madara doesn't answer right away, but when he does, it's quiet. Almost resigned. He nods slowly. "Yeah. This is probably the most relaxed and fun he's had since the war ended. He's happy, don't get me wrong, but he's the type of person that will follow through with everything he says he would. Even if it stresses him the fuck out, he'll do it until he's dead. That's the type of person Hashirama Senju is. He makes it hard to hate him."

Sakura stops and turns to Madara, making the other man stop and turn and face her.

"Do you think..." Sakura pauses, wondering what she wanted to say, before just shrugging and asking, "Do you think that we should try and do something to help lessen the burden on his shoulders? Or at least help him relax? He looks like he really needs it."

Madara nods slowly, stuffing his hands into his pockets to protect them from the cold. The temperature's dropping as winter approaches. Sakura is going to need to add something to her outfit to keep herself warm or she'll catch a cold.

"What did you have in mind?" Madara asks.

Sakura taps her chin. "I'm not sure. What would make Hashirama-sama happy? If not relax him?"

Madara shrugs his shoulders. "World peace, if I had to guess. But a close second might be... oh, I don't know. A pleasant skip through the forest?"

Sakura lets out a laugh. "He does seem like that would relax him. Maybe give him an afternoon off to meditate and give himself some time to let the pressure of this job seep out of him, at least for an afternoon."

Madara nods. "That's not a bad idea. Let's do that, after this is all over and settled down." They turn and start walking back down the road again, side by side. Sakura liked moments like this. There wasn't any drama or anger. It was all just relaxing and stress relieving. Mostly for Hashirama, but it was still a good thing. It was so much better than drama. These last few days had been relatively drama free.

If only that had carried on to the end of the last day. For the third day, before the announcement for the winner was named, someone made a mistake, and Sakura saw someone she didn't think she'd see again.


	11. The Friend

If Sakura was asked, she would have no way of explaining what events lead up to the moments that she felt she was betrayed by the three men she'd dared to call friends. Perhaps it truly was an accident, as they claimed, or perhaps they were embarrassed to stoop to such lowly tactics. They were men of legends and were revered as better than most others in both battle sense and honor. If Sakura was of a more sound mind, she would be inclined to believe them. Let them feed her whatever their words were - nonsense or truth - but Sakura was stuck thinking logically from the shinobi part of her brain.

Sakura was an unknown. No one there knew Sakura before she showed up. No one knew where she came from, how exactly her village was destroyed - other than the vague "a really strong man did it" - how she was the sole survivor of said destruction, why she is so backwards in comparison to what they are used to, even if the name she gave them was really her name and so much more. They had no way of knowing any of that being truth or false.

So of course they would try and learn more about her - she's surprised they waited for as long as they did and used the tactic that they did - but Sakura never imagined that she would feel this violated, this betrayed at the end of it. She's not sure what she had expected to happen, but this wasn't it.

Perhaps it was naïve of Sakura, to think that she could live in her village - experience it's founding - and not hit rough spots. A childish view for a childish girl. Sakura would like to believe that she had grown wise in the ways of the world, especially the shinobi world in which she treaded as one of them, but she had to wonder how much of that was true. Sakura was a shinobi in title only. She wasn't really in the business of ending lives, in fact, if anything, Sakura was more of a doctor rather than a shinobi.

She was capable of taking lives, certainly, but that was everyone. Anyone with enough force or will power, or even hate, could be capable of killing. Sometimes circumstance is all that's needed.

Over the years perhaps the term: Shinobi, has become too loosely defined. In Sakura's day and age a shinobi could really be explained as a person capable of using chakra. Now, the actual definition is a tool to be used by ones village, or clan, to further its own devices. Something that can be used then thrown away without a care, but in Sakura's time, there are very few that can really hold a candle to the people of this time. Those that can, in Sakura's opinion, end up becoming Hokage. Or perhaps Kage is the best term.

But first, back in time a few hours to what would later be training ground 7. It was early in the morning, the birds were chirping and the sun, ah, Konoha heat, beats down on them. Madara and Hashirama are actually surprisingly loud as they compete on who can skip rocks the furthest. They were like young children, laughing and goading each other, getting more and more competitive.

Sakura and Tobirama sat side-by-side a few feet away from the two older young men watching them skip rocks in silence. Sakura leans back on her hands and accidently brushes the future Second Hokage's fingers with her own. She slides her hand away, blushing deeply. "Sorry," she murmurs.

"No harm done," Tobirama says softly, not pulling his red gaze away from the bickering clan leaders. His long, bushy white hair is almost translucent in the sunlight and his lashes are long and just as pale, nearly unable to cast shadows across his cheeks.

"I've been curious about this for a while," Sakura says slowly, drawing those keen red eyes down to her. "How are you doing in the sun?"

He raises an eyebrow. "I'm fine. I'm used to it."

Sakura nods. "Sure, but your albinism must make it hard to be out here in the blistering heat."

He looks at her curiously now. "You know about my condition?"

Sakura nods again, turning a bit to face him. "Sure. It's a genetic condition where your body doesn't have a lot of melanin and no pigment in your hair, eyes or skin, which is why I asked about the heat. You must get sunburnt so easily."

Tobirama nods slowly, still looking curious. "I was, as a child, but I now use my chakra to protect my skin from the sun."

A thought just came to Sakura, so suddenly. "You're an amazing sensor!" Tobirama's left eyebrow quirks up at that. His expression telling her that he has no idea what she was saying. "When someone looses a sense, whether it be hearing or seeing, the others enhance in order to pick up the slack. Tell me, if it's not too much trouble, how's you sight?"

He shrugs, looking away, but his actions say it all. His extraordinarily good sensing abilities stem from his albinism. Fascinating.

Sakura opens her mouth, to tell him not to be embarrassed by something that he couldn't control when a female voice calls out to her. "Sakura-sama! Sakura-sama? Where are you?"

Sakura jumps to her feet and spins around, eyes scanning the area for the voice. "Over here!" She yells. "Who's there?"

A Senju woman, long brown hair wild and frazzled by her no doubt running to Sakura. Her eyes lock on to the pink haired girl and she sprints toward her with new vigor, even though she's breathless and practically collapses into Sakura's arms when she gets to the green eyed girl.

"What's wrong?" Sakura asks, holding the older woman up.

"My son, oh please, Sakura-sama! My son, he's not breathing! Please, save him!" She grabs hold of Sakura's arms in a white knuckled grip, making Sakura flinch slightly at the strength.

"What? Where is he?" Sakura asks, forcing the minor discomfort away.

"The village!" The woman rasps, blue eyes wide. "Oh god, he wasn't breathing!" She crumbles partially to the ground, sobbing, Sakura being the only thing holding her up. "My baby! My baby!"

Sakura lowers the woman gently to the dirt, knowing that she needs to be somewhere else. She runs a few feet away before turning back to make sure someone was tending to the woman - Hashirama was - before she breaks into a sprint back to the village. It didn't take Sakura long to get to the village, and locate where the child in question is, due to the mass of people circling around.

As she gets there and elbows her way through the crowd, there is an Uchiha boy, about thirteen or so, a few feet away, pale as a ghost and shaking as a leaf in a harsh wind. His back is pressed tightly against the tree behind him while his large black eyes are focused on the unmoving body of a brown haired Senju boy, around the same age, in the middle of the half circle of bystanders. People let Sakura through and she heads right over to the unmoving boy, dropping down to her knees next to him, looking over his person for any noticeable injuries.

Sakura puts a hand over his heart and sends chakra to it, letting her hand light up in the familiar green, she scans his injuries, not really finding any indication for the boy's heart to suddenly stop, but she had an aching suspicion. She pulls open his shirt to see a telltale darkening mark over the boy's heart making Sakura frown deeply. Sakura swallows down the dark feelings and forces herself to become the medical shinobi she's needed as and detach herself from how she's feeling.

She rolls her shoulders back, giving her a second to really go through the transition before setting to work. She lifts him up a bit, one arm under his knees and one under his shoulders and moves him to more flat ground, making note of how Hashirama is kneeling down in front of Sakura, on the other side of the boy, looking down at him somberly. Sakura lays the small Senju boy flat on his back and tilts his chin up before leaning down and putting her ear up to his mouth, just in case she somehow missed it.

No breathing. No heart beat.

She turns to face him, plug his nose and breathing into his body. She watches as his chest rises at the action, then lowers when she pulls away. She positions herself over him, placing her hands onto his chest and begins performing CPR. Fifteen long seconds. That's how long Sakura listened to herself going through the motions of CPR and the Uchiha boy behind her sobbing inconsolably before she leans down and breaths into the little body beneath her and he gasps for air, brown eyes opening a bit before squinting into the light.

Sakura puts a hand over his chest and feels his heart rate jump up before pumping strong. She waits a couple of minutes, people murmuring quietly around her but trying not to distract the medical ninja in action, just keeping an eye on his heart rate, as it slowly falls back to a regular pace. The Senju boy was looking up at the sky with a dazed look on his face, as if he wasn't all there yet. Trying to process what happened to himself. She pulls her hand away from his steadily rising and falling chest and stands up slowly.

Turning around, her eyes find the now quiet Uchiha boy, his face is red, as are his eyes - but not with the Sharingan - and he's still shaking. Madara is a few feet from him, looking down at the Senju boy that Hashirama was softly talking to, smoothing the boy's brown hair down. Behind Hashirama is the woman that got Sakura, the boy's mother, she's in Tobirama's arms, shaking with relief only being held up by the future Second's strength.

Sakura stops in front of the Uchiha boy. He flinches, looking up at Sakura like at any moment she could reach out and strike him. He falls down onto his butt, as if trying to put a bit of distance between them.

"I'm sorry..." the Uchiha boy rasps, his voice hoarse from all his crying. Sakura lowers in front of him onto her hunches.

"Did you do that to him?" Sakura asks. The boy visibly pales. "Do you even understand what happened?" He shakes his head slowly, pressing his back tighter against the rough bark of the tree behind him.

He shakes his head again. He's just a child - an ignorant child, of course he wouldn't understand - and he stares back at her with wide black eyes.

"You have amazing chakra control and a keen eye. You mimicked my attack against Hashirama, I could tell by the wound on the Senju boy's chest," Sakura says. "And it worked out a little bit better than you may have hoped for, huh?" The boy nods slowly, looking like he was going to cry again.

"I didn't want to hurt him! I didn't mean to..." he says, tears welling up again. "He'll be okay..?" He sounds hopeful.

Sakura nods. "Yes, he'll be alright. But, sweetie, you have to really think about what happened. Sure, he's okay, but any number of circumstance could have made that not so. A great part of being a shinobi isn't learning new skills, but learning to control the skills that you have. You've shown me a talent for chakra control, but you have multitudes of different things that you need to practice on rather than people. Okay? Do you understand how dangerous of a situation you put that boy into?"

The Uchiha nods, tears sliding down his face again. "I'm sorry..."

Sakura reaches out and pats the top of the Uchiha's head. "I don't need an apology. The boy your hurt does. Be sincere. You scared his poor mother half crazy, so make sure you apologize to her too."

The Uchiha boy nods remorsefully, blinking away his tears. "Yes, ma'am..."

"Kota...?" The Senju boy in Hashirama's arms rasps, looking around dazedly until he finds the Uchiha boy - Kota - staring back at him. He blinks a few times, trying to clear his vision before smiling goofily at the black haired boy. "That was crazy. Let's not do that again for a while, okay?"

Kota nods briskly. "Deal."

Hashirama laughs, patting the top of the Senju boy's head. "I think we can all agree with that."

It was because of that incident that Sakura was out of it the rest of the day. She was just walking around, stuck in her own head. That boy had tried to mimic her attack and ended up hurting someone because of it. Sakura knows that she can't really be blamed for it, but she still feels like there should have been some way for her to have known that was going to happen. Sure, they were kids and shouldn't be expected to always be thinking logically, but she still felt bad. Thankfully the Senju boy was going to be okay, and his mother was willing to be forgiving so long as both boys promised to be careful.

Still, Sakura was sure to sit down with both the boys and properly explain to them why is was wrong to practice techniques they knew nothing about. They apologized and promised to not practice on each other anymore but Sakura was still weary. She also made them promise to keep their eyes open for any other kids trying to mimic their actions and encourage them to come and see her for guidance.

Sakura was wandering around aimlessly when she heard someone call out her name. Then, she felt the intrusion and everything went black.

"Oh no," the Yamanaka clan leader says as the four men float in darkness. "I think something went wrong..." He looks around.

"'Something'?" Tobirama echoes, narrowing his eyes. "Where are we?"

The Yamanaka clan leader - Inojo - looks around for a few moments more. "There's nothing here...?" He shakes his head, eyebrows pulled together. "I'm not sure what happened..."

"You told us that this ability would allow us to see the memories of one of your clansmen," Madara says, black eyes burning holes in the side of the blond's head, making the man vastly uneasy. "You said this wasn't dangerous. That you had done it hundreds of times. Was that a lie?"

"No," Inojo says, turning to an angered Madara. "We are in someone's head... I'm just not sure whose. I'll have to access the memories to see..."

"Shouldn't we just leave?" Hashirama asks, wringing his hands nervously. He never liked this idea from the beginning. He was willing to believe the Yamanaka when he told them about their clan abilities but as per usual his brother and best friend had to be difficult. They wanted an actual demonstration but it couldn't be done on them or either of their clansmen due to clan secrets. Inojo could still protect his clan secrets inside of a Yamanaka clan member's head. But now they aren't in anyone's head they know. It could be in some kind of civilian's head if they had to guess.

The three other men stare at Hashirama for a moment, as if trying to see if he was serious. When he just stared back at them blankly, eyes telling them that he was in fact very serious, they looked at each other.

"I suppose you're right," Tobirama says.

Madara sighs. "Agreed." Hashirama sighs as well, but in relief that both his hard-headed brother and best friend were willing to compromise now.

Inojo opens his mouth, about to say something when a small girl appeared between the three founders, making them jump at the suddenness.

She was small, probably seven years old, hunched into a tiny ball on the floor, crying into her hands softly, little shoulders shaking. Normally, none of the men would have any idea who this small child was, but there was one signature thing about her that gave way to her identity. Jaw length messy pink hair. All the men were shocked at the sight of the normally abrasive pink haired girl reduced to a smaller, weeping version of herself.

But it was also an immediate indicator of whose mind they were inside of.

"Oh no," Hashirama says slowly, "we shouldn't be doing this. We shouldn't be in here-"

"I don't have a big forehead!" Little Sakura weeps, looking up at them with huge, watery green eyes. Immediately all men were uncomfortable. None of them knew how to deal with a crying child, even if rationally Inojo knew that the girl wasn't really there crying, it still caught him off guard at the power in the memories. It was such a silly thing to be crying over, even for a child.

"Ha ha, Sakura's got a huge forehead!" A group of girls appear around Sakura. They start chanting, "Forehead girl! Forehead girl!" Louder and louder despite Sakura's insistence that she wasn't such, only furthering to distress the small pink haired girl until she was inconsolable, full-blown sobbing.

"Don't be so mean to me..." Sakura cries softly to herself as the girls vanish into blackness. "I didn't do anything wrong..."

"Sakura-chan..." Hashirama says softly, looking over at his brother. They never had to deal with bullies, but bullies were in fact everywhere and it was no fun watching a friend get hurt by them.

Tobirama frowns, but says nothing, his red eyes are locked on the little girl in front of him.

"Hey!" A different girl's voice calls out, making Inojo jump at the sudden shift in memories.

A girl appears in front of Sakura, standing over her with hands planted firmly on slim hips. Her hair is also jaw length and a bright, beautiful blond color. As soon as Hashirama saw her, he knew who she was.

"Ino," he says. At Tobirama and Madara's blank looks, he quickly explains, "Sakura's friend. That brush's owner. She told us about her after she first woke up. Do you guys remember?" Their blank looks are his answer, making him sigh.

"What're you crying over?" the blond asks, tilting her head. "Don't let those girls bring you down! They don't know anything. If you want some help," she holds out her hand for Sakura to take, "I can help you! I'm Ino, by the way!"

The image changes, it's a slightly older Sakura, standing in front of an older Ino. Both of them could be in their early teens. Now the three men could tell the difference. She was really skinny and small but wearing her signature red, but this time in a dress. Her pink hair was to her lower back, long and uneven being held up by a red ribbon. They didn't say anything, just stared at each other, but there was something in their eyes that said it all; they were no longer friends. There was a tenseness to the two girls.

Ino's attire immediately made all four men uncomfortable. Her skirt only went to her knees and was cut straight up both sides to her waist with only a thin layer of bandages covering her legs and mid-drift, leaving little to the imagination.

The image changes again and the Uchiha fan is practically thrown in their faces, making them take a collective step back. It took a moment for Hashirama to realize that the Uchiha fan was on the back of a young man, walking away from Sakura.

"Please don't go!" Sakura yells, tears streaming down her face. "I love you! Please! If you go, I'll scream!"

The boy, now no doubt an Uchiha, turns his head slowly, making Madara and Hashirama both jerk in surprise. Uchiha genetics weren't very diverse, but when this boy turned to look at Sakura, it was scary how much he looked just like Madara did at around that age. His hair style is a bit different, but the similarities were almost astounding.

"Sakura," the boy says, looking at her from over his shoulder, smirking a bit. "You're annoying."

The look on Sakura's face was utterly heartbroken as the boy turns away again and starts walking. Sakura whimpers, pained, before running after him taking only a few steps before he disappears, making her stop, arms wrapped around her body as if trying to physically hold herself together. The boy appears behind her, looking down at the back of her neck, pink hair now cut short again.

Hashirama shifts uncomfortably. His heart goes out to Sakura, the girl was obviously in pain, and he felt strange watching something so personal happening.

Sakura takes a moment before looking up slightly, suddenly noticing the boy's presence at her back, but she doesn't move, afraid of scaring him away. The boy leans in close, a strange look in his eye that she couldn't see, but somehow felt. "Sakura," he says, softly this time, "thank you." He brings up one hand, palm parallel to the ground, while the other one wraps around Sakura's waist slowly. His hand flies toward the back of Sakura's neck and the image disappears.

"The boy she loved..." Tobirama says slowly, "...was an Uchiha." He shakes his head slowly. "Where did she meet an Uchiha that wasn't on the field?"

"I'm wondering the same thing," Madara says, frowning deeply.

The next moment, there is a flurry of images, so quickly it was hard to pick up what was happening. All three of the founders are tensed, like that will somehow hold them into place. But there are people and places and battles and snippets of conversation. A woman, beautiful with long blond hair and brown eyes. She looks down at Sakura over a busty chest, lovingly. She smiles. A man with ringed purple eyes. A boy, wild blond hair and big blue eyes. Fear. A name screamed out in Sakura's voice.

"Naruto!"

An image, the Uchiha from before, but this time, he's holding Sakura up off the ground by her throat. She kicks a bit, holding onto his wrist. His eyes are bleeding, he appears delusional. The image becomes blurry, fading into black as she loses consciousness. She's saved by a man with wild gray hair and a single black eye that glares at the Uchiha. She's crying, begging with her eyes for the boy to stop. Whatever he was doing, to stop doing it.

The blond boy and the Uchiha fight, the blond begs the Uchiha to come home, to stop being so difficult. But the Uchiha sneered, not seeming to be interested in what either of them had to say. But someone else appears, a man in an orange swirly mask and the Uchiha boy is gone.

Endless nights of crying, curled up into a ball, begging the boy to return. Going through the ages, from when she was a young teen with short pink hair, to some time far more current. And then she stopped. She just stopped. No more tears, she had something else that she had to focus on.

War.

All the signs of war. Battle cries, soldiers, a marching army, a lot of injuries. A lot of the images is of Sakura saving lives, and loosing a lot too. A lot of dead eyes staring up at her vacantly. A lot of people that Sakura couldn't save, that left a horrible imprint on her mind. A village left in ruins. Death everywhere. Explosions. Blood. A giant, monstrous form against the starlight, blackened out.

And then there is the moon. Huge, like, exaggeratedly huge, with what looked like some kind of strange three layered sharingan with 9 tomoes and a pupil in the center, glaring down at them. It bathed the blackened out area red, giving it a very eerie feeling.

"Her mind is chaotic," Inojo explains, speaking again for the first time in a long time, reminding the other men that he was there. "The images are flashing because in her mind, the experience is a blur. Only a few things stand out in her memory."

There is a moment of silence before the image of the red moon disappears, fading into blackness. There is a silence that swiftly becomes uneasy. A pressure settles around them, drawing Inojo's attention, making him suddenly look around, alarmed.

"What's with that look?" Madara asks slowly, frowning.

"Something is coming..." Inojo says, looking around quickly.

"What does that mean?" Tobirama asks. He crosses his hands over his chest to keep himself from summoning Rajin to his side. Could he summon it here? In someone else's mind? "What's coming?"

Inojo looks around, hands raised up in a defensive pose. "I'm not exactly sure. It wasn't here before. It was hiding somewhere in her memories..."

"What does that mean?" Tobirama asks again, more annoyed this time.

Inojo looks over at Tobirama. "I've heard about it from clansmen, thought this is the first that I've seen it myself, that sometimes there are minds that aren't necessarily easy to both enter and leave without the person waking up..." At Tobirama's blank stare, he keeps going, "I'm not sure how to explain it. I think that she's becoming aware. That's amazing. She must have powerful spiritual control!" He sounds slightly impressed.

"You're wrong, bub," An angry voice snarls, echoing through the darkness. Then a large figure of Sakura with the characters "Inner" written across her forehead appears. There was no color to her, just a white outline of a blackened out figure. She appears towering over the men, head to waist visible, the rest of her is obscured into the darkness. "The powerful presence is me!"

Inojo blinks up at her in surprise. "Wait... a different..." his eyes fly around in confusion for a moment before realization hits him. "A separate soul? She has a separate soul inside her body?" His eyes widen. "Oh no..."

Inner Sakura sneers down at them. "How dare you get into my head? I'll kill you all; founders or not!" She reaches out and grabs all of them, pinning them together in her hands. "Get the hell out of my head!" She snarls, squeezing them. The men struggle but in this mindscape this Sakura has absolute control.

"Sakura-chan, please!" Hashirama says, looking up at the angered soul. "We're sorry for being here."

"Sorry doesn't give me my privacy back!" Inner Sakura snarls, leaning in close to them. "Sorry doesn't help me at all. Sorry," she mocks. Inner Sakura sneers at them but Hashirama doesn't appear to be put off.

"We're sorry for invading your privacy, Sakura-chan, please forgive us," he says softly.

"Che," Inner Sakura scoffs, obviously not buying his placating act. "Why should I forgive you? I don't owe you anything! You were the one who was looking for some friends! You're own best friend and brother consider you to be annoying." She sneers again, an ugly look on her face, completely unlike the Sakura they've come to know. "Some shitty friends you guys are."

"That's not true," another Sakura voice says, this time calmer. An image of Sakura appears beneath them. "They aren't bad friends," she says, but there is a sadness in her eyes. "They are only doing what's expected of them. They are shinobi after all. We all are. Trust isn't something that's magically given. It's something that should be earned. I was a fool to think otherwise." She shakes her head.

Hashirama peers down at her, frowning deeply. "Sakura-chan-"

"Get out of my head," Sakura says, looking away. "I think you've seen enough."

"Sakura-"

"Just," Sakura cuts him off, eyebrows pulling together tightly. She sighs. "Just get out of my head." Inner Sakura gives them a threatening squeeze before Inojo manages to pull his hands, which trapped between his body and Madara's, free and does the necessary hand sign and mutters, "Release."

All of them jolt back into their bodies.

Sakura opens her eyes to see Salma looking down at her with thin, twin brown eyebrows pulled together tightly. She looks relieved when Sakura stares back up at her, her shoulders sagging a bit. "Oh thank goodness," she says, smiling faintly. "I'm glad you're alright!"

"'Alright'," Sakura mutters, "is a relative term."

"What?" she asks.

"Nothing." Sakura pushes herself out of Salma's arms and onto her feet. She shakes herself a bit, to wake up her tired body, feeling violated. She runs her hands up and down her arms, looking around slowly. She catches Hashirama walking toward her, an apology already on his lips. She steps back as he draws near, making him pause.

"Sakura-chan," Hashirama says, looking distressed, "I am so sorry that happened to you. That was a violation of your privacy and totally disrespectful of us. Trust me, that was never my intention. Please believe that."

Sakura doesn't respond, her unhappiness and obvious feeling of betrayal is expressed on her face. When Hashirama tries to take another step toward her, she takes a step back, not trusting herself to not do something she'll regret later. If he reaches out and touches her, she doesn't know if she'll be able to not just break his hand, or at least try to. It's best not to give herself the chance to find out.

Sakura's mind is just racing. She can't believe they did that to her. She just couldn't believe that she couldn't believe it. She should have known. She shouldn't have blinding trusted. She was crazy to blindly trust. While her feelings were like crushed gravel on the streets, she knew she should have expected that. As is the life that she's chosen.

Admittedly, something like this never would have happened if she wasn't a shinobi.

It's not a matter of questioning her choice to become a shinobi, because she honestly can't see herself doing anything but this job, but with this life comes with a lot of things that perhaps aren't so favorable. Like, at the end of the day, one really can't trust anybody. It's just not smart. Not in this type of world. Especially now, where there isn't a soul in sight who honestly would do anything for her. Like Naruto, or Lee, or Ino. Hell, any of her friends would do anything for her. But not here, not these people. There is too much mistrust and no history.

Sakura was a fool to think otherwise.

As had become a trend in dealing with the things of the past, Sakura turns on her heel and runs away, this time, heading toward her home. She was wrapped up in a flurry of emotions, not really knowing how to pick them apart. Everything was happening, and crumbling, so fast.

It wasn't just a matter of them peaking into her life, seeing all of her personal thoughts and feelings, everything that ever went wrong or right in her life, that was all laid bare to these men. It was the fact that everything, including the fact that she was born and raised in the village that is currently being built could be seen. Every-thing that she had been trying to hard to protect. Her future, her loved ones, her friends, all of them could disappear without a trace now. For one reason or another, everything could be destroyed now.

Because of her, everyone could be gone. Forever. And any chance she would ever have to go back to her time has slipped through her fingers like water. It was all lost to her now. And it was all her fault.

"Damn it!" Sakura screams at nothing, stopping in front of the house that Hashirama had built for her. "Damn it all!"

She swings her fist around wildly, hitting the ground, a nearby tree, anything. She didn't add any chakra so all she was really doing was hurting herself, but it did nothing to pierce the fog of agony that has settled over her soul. At this moment in time, she would give anything to be able to see the ones she loved again. Anyone! It didn't matter who. Something to confirm that she hadn't destroyed any chance for any of them to exist.

Her right hand, which was still swinging around, was caught in an iron tight grip around the wrist. Sakura spins around to face the person responsible. It's Tobirama. He stares back at her with his lips pressed firmly together.

"Sakura," he starts but she cuts him off, struck with so much grief and pain she's unable to think clearly.

"Ruined! Everything! Now it'll never happen! Now I'll never get to see them again or go home or anything!" She screams at him. "You betrayed me! Those were my memories! Mine! Those were the only things I had left that were mine alone and you took them from me!" If he would release her hand, Sakura's almost delirious enough to believed she'd swing at him. She tugs at her hand but he doesn't let go.

"Sakura," Tobirama says calmly, "what happened earlier, was an accident. I'm sorry you're upset-"

"'Upset'," Sakura echoes. "Upset?" She asks incredulously.

"Tobirama," Hashirama warns from where he and Madara were running up behind the future Second.

"I'm not upset," Sakura snarls, narrowing her eyes. "I'm pissed. This isn't right at all! I know we live in a shinobi world, but damn! If you were in my shoes, Tobirama-sama, you'd be pissed too! I may not have secrets that pertain to my family that could be used to destroy both myself and them, but I do have secrets! I do have thoughts and I do have feelings! My secrets aren't any less important than yours!" She tries to yank her hand away again but Tobirama holds strong.

"I'm sorry that we saw your secrets," Tobirama says, voice raised so that she couldn't talk over him. "It was not something we intentionally planned, and I apologize. But you can't go running around being too upset over this. It's just as you said, a shinobi world, and as unfortunate as it is, this is how the world works. Luckily, you seem to have been exactly what you portrayed to us, but we are still allowing you, a stranger, near our families. You can't expect a welcome like that without a grain of salt. I do wish things could have been handled better, but this is how it happened."

"Tobirama, stop it!" Hashirama snaps, putting a hand on his brother's shoulder. "That's enough!"

"You make it seem like nothing!" Sakura yells, yanking at her arm again but still to no avail. "It's not nothing! It's my life, you've invaded!"

"You are alone," Tobirama says coldly, making Sakura freeze. "Your secrets; about your village, about your family and about your friends, can't be used anymore. You said it yourself. Everyone you know is gone. I'm sorry, but if what you say is true, then there is no dispute."

"Tobirama!" Hashirama gasps. Even Madara looks surprised at the white haired man's words. So callous. So cruel. So unlike Tobirama. Especially at a moment like this.

Sakura stares at him for a long moment, trying to find some way to dispute his words. Some way to magically prove to him, and herself, that he was wrong. But the truth was; she couldn't. She had no way to prove him wrong because she didn't even know for certain that he was. She could be here with no chance in returning home because there was no home to return to. Something could have happened and everyone could be gone. Forever.

Tears trickle over Sakura's cheeks, falling silently to her chin. Tobirama's hard look turns immediately to shock.

"Uh," he says, probably not having expected Sakura to start crying. He looked like he'd prefer for her to do just about anything but that at that moment. Maybe even hit him.

Sakura's shoulders pull together and she just starts crying. She felt so lost, so hopeless, and even though Inner Sakura, whom she never thought she'd see or hear again, was trying to calm her down; switching between encouraging her to knock the future Second on his ass with a chakra infused punch and telling her that there's no way this won't somehow turn out alright, she just cried. She was pulling weakly at the grip on her wrist, but he still didn't let go.

Just as he was about to open him mouth - to say what? Sakura didn't know - a blur of white came racing out of the forest, so fast Sakura missed it all the way up until it was right on top of them. It went right for Tobirama's arm, easily wrapping it's massive jaws around his wrist. Tobirama grunts out in both surprise and pain, letting go of Sakura and letting her fall to the dirt. She hadn't realized when she started crying how much she was using Tobirama's strength to keep standing.

Sakura quickly wipes the tears from her eyes so that she can see and scrambles to her feet, ready to fight off the attacker. But it wasn't going after her, it was going after Tobirama, practically pulling him around by his own hand. It was huge, like a bear, snarling and growling darkly deep in it's throat and pulling him, a grown man, around like he was nothing.

"Tobirama!" Hashirama calls out, moving forward to help his little brother after somehow being thrown back a bit in the two's struggle. Madara falls into a defensive crouch, one hand reaching behind himself at the waist to summon his fan at a moments notice.

Sakura took a moment to really look at the bear attacking the future Second, and recognized it immediately. Despite it's clumpy and dirty fur; rigid and standing on end, tail straight back and backside facing her, Sakura knew what it was.

It was Akamaru.


	12. Two Things

At first Sakura didn't know what to do. She just stared at Akamaru; large and dirty, obviously neglected, yanking Tobirama around by his hand, before she leaps into action before Hashirama could, ready to attack Akamaru to help Tobirama. Sakura quickly jumps between them in order to prevent any of the founders from hurting Akamaru. She grabs Tobirama's arm and holds it steady.

"Stop! Akamaru!" Sakura puts one hand on Tobirama's chest to stop him from moving, when he freezes, she turns toward the scraggly dog. Sakura reaches out and slowly puts her hand on the top of Akamaru's wrinkled nose, the deep-throated growling slowly disappearing. Sakura lightly runs her fingers up and down his nose, softly saying, "It's okay, Akamaru, it's okay. He wasn't hurting me, I promise. You can let him go. Go on, boy."

Akamaru's large brown eyes lock on to Sakura, as if waiting for something to happen, before his lips uncurl and lower around Tobirama's hand. He unclenches his jaw and opens it up slowly. His large white fangs, well cared for by Kiba at one point, are now stained a bit red with Tobirama's blood and bits of dirt. Sakura can feel Tobirama's strong muscles along his arm ripple in pain at the pressure from Akamaru releasing his hand.

"You know this bear...?" Tobirama asks, voice tight.

"Bear?" Sakura echoes, glancing up at Tobirama with a raised eyebrow, her eyes flickering over to Hashirama and Madara, still tensed up and ready to jump in at a moments notice. "Akamaru's not a bear. He's a dog." All three of the men blanch at that, as if that didn't make sense.

"Dog?" they echo together, like the word was foreign to them. They all blink a few times.

Sakura turns to look down at Akamaru, who was looking back up at her with a tilted head, and says, "Sit boy, stay here. I'll be right back." Akamaru obeys, sitting down, his clumpy, dirty tail wags a bit, his nasty behavior from before is long gone. Now he's obeying her, sitting down in the dirt with his long dirty brown tail waging back and forth happily, his floppy ears are perked a bit. That's the Akamaru she recognizes.

Sakura smiles at him a bit before returning to business. She pulls Tobirama toward her house, he doesn't fight her. She only makes it a few feet before looking over her shoulder at Hashirama and Madara. "No one hurt Akamaru, got it?" She glares at them, then looks down at Akamaru. "Stay, boy." He barks, tail still wagging, mouth open, panting.

Sakura stops at the porch, lets go of Tobirama's hand, and walks inside after disabling her protective seals. She grabs a large bowl and fills it with clean water, along with grabbing a towel before carefully carrying them outside and setting them down on the porch next to where she left Tobirama. She sits down on the edge and pulls the white haired man down on the other side of the bowl and immediately immerses it in water, cleaning it up. The water turns brown and red. She rolls up Tobirama's sleeve slowly to his elbow, ignoring his intense red eyes on her face.

Sakura runs her hands up and down his arm, getting all the dirt and slobber off before working on his hand, cleaning it thoroughly. She delicately cleans his fingers, feeling the muscles move under her touch, flinching and twitching in pain even though she's being delicate. Akamaru really ripped the skin. Moreso the thin layer on the back of his hand rather than his palm, thick with callouses from wielding a sword.

Finally removing his hand from the water, Sakura grabs the towel and slowly dries it off. She puts the towel down and looks at Tobirama's hand to see it ripped in a few places pretty bad. Akamaru had a good grip on him. When he bit down on Tobirama's hand he was hell bent on making sure Tobirama couldn't pull away. Sakura doesn't know what to think about that. In a way, it was a bit of karmatic retribution for what he said about Sakura's friends. Kiba, being one of them.

Sakura rubs healing ointment on all of Tobirama's wounds before wrapping his hand up in crisp medical tape. She wraps it up tightly, making sure it's secure before letting go. Sure, Sakura could have most likely healed the wounds with her chakra - she's got enough - but she's still a bit peeved and hurt about what he said before about her family and friends. He can deal with the minor pain and scars. Maybe it'll humble him a bit. Or at least make him kinder.

Sakura cleans her hands off on the towel before dumping out the bowl and taking it back inside, not minding that she wore her shoes both times into the house before heading back outside and closing the door behind her, eyes locking on to the mangy white bear-of-a-dog, now lying down, basking in the sunlight. Hashirama and Madara eye Akamaru wearily, but seem to doubt that he'll do anything now that he's rolled onto his back and is wiggling back and forth trying to scratch it while groaning loudly. A very dangerous beast, he is.

Hashirama walks past Akamaru toward Sakura, thin brown eyebrows pulled together. "Sakura-chan -" Sakura holds up her hand to stop him.

"I kinda hate you right now," Sakura says.

"Okay," Hashirama bows his head, taking a step back. Sakura sighs and looks down at Akamaru for a moment, watching him wiggle around before standing up and walking over to him. She kneels down in the dirt, waiting for him to roll onto his side and look up at her, tail wagging.

"Are you okay, Tobirama?" Sakura hears Hashirama ask behind her.

"Fine," Tobirama grunts.

"Akamaru," Sakura says, unable to believe that he's there. She wasn't imagining it. She reached out and touched his usually soft but now coarse fur to see that yes, it really was Akamaru. "How are you here, Akamaru?" A pause, then, "Where is Kiba, Akamaru? Is he here with you?" She looks around the forest, wondering if she had just somehow missed the slitted-eyed boy standing in the forest, but there isn't anyone.

Akamaru's ears droop and he whimpers softly.

Sakura frowns. "Is that a no, then? So, it's just you, not Kiba?"

Akamaru whimpers again.

"How did you get here?" Sakura asks, immediately feeling stupid. She wasn't Kiba, she couldn't really understand Akamaru. Just what he could convey. Everything else was just dog noises.

"Smart dog..." Madara mutters, a few feet away from them, still keeping his distance. "And large too."

"He's not just any dog," Sakura says, "he's a nin-ken. A ninja dog. Kiba is his human partner... but it sounds like he's not here..." Sakura's shoulders sag. Then says, more to herself, "What is happening? How is he here?" She sighs, running a hand through her longer pink hair. She didn't know what to say, how to get more information from him, but didn't know what to ask until the thought suddenly came to her. "Are you alone, Akamaru? I know Kiba isn't with you, but does that mean no one is?"

Akamaru perks up, as if he suddenly remembered something and that makes hope blossom in Sakura's chest. Akamaru jumps to his feet and starts barking wildly at Sakura, jumping up and down a bit before turning around and sprinting toward the forest. Sakura blinks rapidly for a few moments before realizing he stopped at the treeline and was barking at her, as if to say, "Hurry up!"

Sakura doesn't need to be told twice. She runs after the mangy white dog and follow him into the forest. Sakura didn't care that she left without saying a word to the founders, the only thing she could focus on was Akamaru's tail, leaping around through the forest, and the thought that there is someone out here, one of her friends is out here somewhere. Kami had heard Sakura's plea. She wasn't alone anymore. Someone was here!

Sakura wasn't sure how long she was following Akamaru, but it was long enough to break into a sweat. Sakura follows Akamaru to a small creek and she felt her heart stop. Sakura was shaking, physically shaking, as she was wrapped up in this maelstrom of emotions staring at the dirty, worn out face of none other, than Sakura's longtime comrade, Shikamaru Nara.

For a moment, Sakura just stood there, staring down at her long time classmate and friend. His jounin vest is gone, but he's in his jounin blues; both pants and the shirt. He was dirty from head to toe. His long hair was somehow still held up by the hair-tie, but his face was all dirty. His lips were a bit muddy with one hand laying in the mud just inches away from the water. His eyes were screwed closed tightly, with dark shadows under them. His clothes, while dirty, were also ripped up pretty bad, like Akamaru scratched the shit out of him before Sakura showed up. She didn't see any injuries, just by looking at him, but that meant nothing. He was obviously exhausted.

Akamaru's horrible appearance now makes sense. He's been living out here for who-knows-how-long looking after Shikamaru. Truly a loyal friend. Kiba will be so proud when Sakura tells him. And she will tell him. She'll see him again and tell him all about what a good boy Akamaru was. Seeing him, and Shikamaru, again gave Sakura the ability to believe that she will somehow make it back home and see all of her friends and family again.

Akamaru runs over to Shikamaru, tail still wagging. He licks Shikamaru's cheek and the brown haired boy didn't move, immediately sending Sakura into action. She closed the distance between them, nudging Akamaru away with a soft. "Sit, Akamaru," before checking a pulse on Shikamaru's neck. It's fast and his skin is on fire, no doubt burning up with a fever.

Sakura rests her palm against his forehead and he leans into it a bit, lips moving slightly but there is no noise. She can see eye movement behind the purple lids, he was dreaming.

Sakura puts her left hand onto his chest and sends healing chakra to her hand and scans his body. He's been suffering from a fever for too long. Sakura's got to get it down. She runs it over all his organs, their all okay; except he hasn't eaten in days, and he's dehydrated. Sakura heals all the cuts and bruises and infections from prolonged exposure to an unclean environment. Sakura makes note of the herbs she'll need to help him fight the infection and wonders vaguely if there was some still in storage at the newly deemed medical building that Sakura woke up in. The tents were removed and they were expanding the building. It was the beginnings of a hospital.

"Stay with me, Shikamaru," Sakura says, pressing her lips tightly together. She tilts his head up and opens his eye, trying to look for any sign of consciousness, but his eye just rolls up into the back of his head. Sakura pulls back, leaning onto her hunches, tapping her chin in thought. "Shika-"

Shikamaru lurches forward, wrapping an arm around her, pulling her close protectively and glares at something over her shoulder. Sakura turns slightly to see that Hashirama had followed, no doubt worried about what was going on. Sakura saw the black mass moving before Hashirama did. Of course he didn't see, he didn't even know to look. Hashirama doesn't know Shikamaru. Doesn't know that he's a Nara, or maybe even whatever a Nara is.

"Shikamaru!" Sakura says, gripping his shoulders tightly, giving him a firm shake. Shikamaru's feverish eyes slide slowly over to Sakura, but he doesn't really see her. He's stuck somewhere else, seeing something horrible that makes his forehead crease, his lips press tightly together and his eyes to harden, but he's not there with them. Perhaps he's back in the war, Sakura doesn't know, but there is a strong possibility. What else in his life could be so horrible to get a look like that? Sakura wouldn't claim to know Shikamaru better than anyone else, but the boy, as far as she knew, was never really a troubled child; lazy as fuck, but not troubled. No, war is the only viable option.

Sakura puts a hand onto each of his temples and sends soothing, healing chakra into them, watching his eyelids drop closed and his body fall back against the branch, all his muscles loosening up.

"Sakura-chan..." Hashirama says, stepping closer. He wrings his hands a bit in front of him, looking like he wanted to help her, but knew that she was probably still pissed at him and didn't want to start another fight. "Please," he says, "please can I help you...?"

Sakura, in that split second, wanted to say yes. To just give in and stop being angry, to stop being betrayed, but when she thought about it, thought about how close she was, and may still be, to losing everything, and that shoots right out the window. Sakura looks up at him with a hard look, no longer full on glaring. Hashirama was like a small child, so innocently pure, that it was hard to look into his eyes and be pissed off. He may not have intentionally hurt her, but he still hurt her and what would that say about her feelings if she just let it go?

"No," Sakura says evenly. "Thanks, but he's my friend and my responsibility." A pause, then, "You guys owe me nothing."

With that, Sakura wraps Shikamaru's left arm around her shoulders and stands up, pulling him along with her. She supports his weight easily enough with the only awkward thing being the fact that he was so much taller than her. Sakura knows that refusing Hashirama's help, she hurt his feelings and couldn't bare to look at him as she passed, but she did catch the hurt look in the corner of her eye.

"Come on, Akamaru," Sakura says, closing her eyes tightly for a moment before accepting her own words and opening them again and moving on. Akamaru, who had obeyed and sat down at Sakura's earlier command, jumps to his feet and happily follows along.

 

Sakura cleans Shikamaru thoroughly, with medical detachment. Cleaned him the old fashioned way, with a lot of water and rags, and brought Salma and Aya in to help with his upper torso and head. Sakura had two motives for doing that. The first being that it was just another thing they would have to learn how to do and the second being that she wouldn't have been able to do this alone. She needed the help.

They washed his body, put him in clothes that Salma procured, a simple pair of pants and a shirt, and washed his hair. Sakura gave him a bit of food, just bread, and he barely swallowed it in his feverish daze, and water, which he somewhat choked on, before giving him medicine and letting him rest. Sakura waved the two away, letting them go home, and filled up a few buckets of water and grabbed some soap.

Next was Akamaru.

She went outside where he was waiting and laid the bowls down, looking down at the dirt at him. When he noticed her, his tail started wagging again. "I suppose I'll have to clean you too, huh Akamaru? I mean, Kiba would kill me if I didn't and he found out." She smiles faintly.

Akamaru tilts his head to the side, not understanding. But Sakura didn't mind, she took her time cleaning him up, making sure that, even though he smelt of wet dog now he would be better when he dried. He seemed to like the attention and was happy to practically inhale the scrapes Sakura could scrounge together for him to eat with a happily wagging tail and a content burp before curling up in the spare bedroom that Hashirama built for Sakura in her house next to a peacefully sleeping Shikamaru.

Sakura sat on Shikamaru's other side and watched over him as he slept. After a couple of hours, she gave him more medicine and dabbed a bit at the sweat building up on his forehead. Then she grabbed a fan and began waving it over his face to cool him down a bit. Long into the night Sakura looked after Shikamaru, pausing only to let Akamaru out, give him more water, and to make more medicine for Shikamaru. Other than that, she stayed by Shakamaru's side, unable to believe he was actually there.

After cleaning him up, Sakura can see that he's been out on his own with Akamaru for a while, long enough to start losing weight. His natural tan was even palled a bit with sickness. Sakura blamed herself. If she was smart, she would've been searching the forest with a fine tooth come comb looking for her friends. If she was somehow sent back in time, why couldn't others have been?

Why was she arrogant enough to think that she was somehow special?

She'll have to go out when Shikamaru's better. Look through the forest, find more friends, maybe then they can all work together to find out what happened, why they're there and if they can somehow get back to their own time. That is, if Shikamaru didn't already have those answers. But if they were the only ones; Shikamaru, Akamaru and herself, why them? They were just an odd pair to have and don't complement each other at all. "A bad matchup," Shikamaru would call them. There is very little about their fighting styles that would compliment each other. And that's just overlooking the blatantly obvious fact that Akamaru doesn't have Kiba.

He whimpers sometimes in the night. Sakura could hear him. She would reach out and pet him, telling him that he would see Kiba again, and the big fluffy bear would relax again, believing her. Any other day, Sakura would be skeptical, but having Akamaru and Shikamaru by her side gave her hope. Her life is returning to her. There's a chance that this will all work out. Sakura can't let this opportunity go to waste.

 

"Before you go," Naruto whispers, his voice right in the shell of Sakura's ear, "you have to remember something, Sakura-chan. You can't forget. It's very important. You have to remember that you can't-"

Sakura jerks awake, not having realize that she had fallen asleep. She reaches up to the back of her neck, rubbing the sore muscles for sleeping sitting up. She rolls her shoulders back, flinching at the twinge of pain. Sakura's hand moves over to her shoulders and groans in pain, before dropping her hand onto her lap and look around the room. Naruto wasn't there, even if it felt like he was right there beside her just moments before. Shikamaru is still asleep, but a bit of his color has returned to him. She sits him up and gives him a bit of water before looking over at Akamaru to see him standing up, stretching.

He walks over to the door and paws at the door before looking over at Sakura.

"Gotta go out again, boy? Good lord, your bladder is the side of a grape," Sakura sighs. His tail starts wagging. Sakura smiles, standing up and walking over to the door and letting him out of the room. She lets him out into the yard and follows him. She sits down on the porch and watches him sniff around before she lays down onto her back, the muscles burning in exhaustion.

Sakura closes her eyes and lets out a long sigh. Her mind was racing. What was she suppose to remember? She couldn't conjure the answer no matter how hard she thought. It drew a sigh from her as her head starts to hurt from the strain. Whatever she was suppose to remember, she forgot. Sakura could smack herself upside the head at her inadequacy. She lets herself relax, begrudgingly; knowing the answer won't come to her if she forces it, and begins to fall asleep again when she feels someone approaching her. She jumps into awareness and sits up suddenly, heart pounding.

It's Hashirama with this horribly pensive look on his face, edging closer. He stops when Sakura's eyes lock on him. About a foot behind him is Madara and Tobirama, both with unreadable looks on their faces. Sakura brings her attention back to Hashirama. The First Hokage looks miserable. He doesn't take being unliked very well, does he?

"Yes?" Sakura says, leaning back on her hands. Akamaru, at some point while Sakura was sleep, had crawled up onto the porch and sat down next to her. He was sitting up, looking at Hashirama curiously, ready to attack if needed, but appearing hesitant now. He can most definitely sense how powerful they are. His first attack was to protect, but now he doesn't want to fight if he doesn't have to.

Hashirama wraps his right hand around his elbow and looks around embarrassed. "I wanted to see how you were doing..."

Sakura glances over at Tobirama and Madara.

Hashirama looks over at them for a moment before looking back at Sakura. "I dragged them along because we all have to apologize to you. Sakura, what happened yesterday... it wasn't okay. I know I keep saying that but I need you to believe me. There wasn't anything malicious about why we did what we did. It was insensitive and horrible of us and I'm so terribly sorry. I wish that there was something else for me to say..." He shakes his head, looking distraught. "Sakura, please don't shut me out. I really do want us to be friends. The three of us do." He looks over his shoulder at Tobirama and Madara.

"Sakura," Tobirama says, getting the pointed look from Hashirama, and approaches. He stops a foot in front of her, red eyes flickering over to Akamaru, who was staring back blankly, having already forgotten what happened between them the day before. "I am sorry about what I said... it was uncalled for. Please forgive me. I was..." he trails off, as if not knowing how to continue. He glances over his shoulder, suddenly looking uncomfortable to see Hashirama staring at him curiously while Madara looked bored with the exception of a raised eyebrow. As if waiting for Tobirama to bare his soul.

Tobirama takes a small step closer and lowers his voice, looking down into Sakura's red eyes intensely. "I was embarrassed to have been caught in such a compromising position. We were in the wrong, had the opportunity to leave before we saw anything - Hashirama begged us too but we wouldn't listen - and we were caught. I'm sorry. I lashed out at you to cover my embarrassment." He rubs the back of his neck, looking away with a pink stain across his cheeks. Sakura stares at him with wide eyes, blushing too.

The Second Hokage was blushing. Because of her.

Sakura has to look away too, feeling the heat pool into her cheeks. Something about such a powerful man doing something some... cute was unbelievable. It made butterflies flutter in her stomach. She clears her throat and shakes the feeling away. She's suppose to be mad at them, not thinking that the future Second Hokage was acting adorable.

"I... understand..." Sakura says, not sure how to respond to that. She was happy that they apologized but it didn't mean that she forgave them. She was still so close to having lost everything that she could puke from nerves. Sakura has failed before. On more counts than one. But never before would she have failed so badly as if she somehow destroyed her future. Destroyed her friends, her family, her way of life. How could anyone live if they did something like that? Sakura prays that she dodge a catastrophe and never finds out.

"I accept your apology for what you said," Sakura says slowly. "But entering my mind... I need time to forgive that. I'm just not ready to yet."

Hashirama looks even more unhappy about that. "I understand, Sakura-chan..." He sighs. He looks down at the ground for a moment before raising his eyes back to Sakura through long dark lashes. "How is your friend...? He didn't look to be in too good of condition..."

Tobirama steps to the side so that Sakura and Hashirama can really look at each other. He stares at Sakura for a moment before asking, "Sick friend?"

Sakura looks over her shoulder. "Yeah, he's inside. He'll be okay."

Sakura reaches out and pets Akamaru, finding comfort in his familiarity. There is an awkward silence that settles over them. The four of them look around the yard, not knowing what to say to one another. Sakura can tell Hashirama still wants to help, but figures he'll get shot down again if he says something. That doesn't stop him from looking like he wants to, though.

"I apologize as well..." Madara finally says, hating the silence more than his own embarrassment over having to apologize.

Sakura nods slowly, not sure how she feels about the three of them still apologizing. It'll take a lot more than an apology for Sakura to forgive them, but they - especially Hashirama - make it hard to hold a grudge. Sakura, every time she looks at the future First, is always given the impression that she scientifically proved that the Will of Fire doesn't exist.

"I'd better go see how he's doing," Sakura says, although she doesn't move.

"Who is he?" Tobirama says, looking down at Sakura.

"He's..." Sakura says slowly, not sure how much to say. "He's... a friend."

"Is he Sasuke?" Tobirama asks, red eyes taking in every slight shift in her facial expression.

Sakura blinks in surprise, at first wondering where he heard that name before the obvious reason returned to her. They were in her memory a few hours ago. She had momentarily forgotten.

"No," Sakura says, narrowing her eyes slightly. "No, he's not Sasuke."

"Sasuke is an Uchiha," Madara says, now interested in the conversation. He takes a step forward.

"Yes..." Sakura says slowly. There was no point in disputing it. They already knew. Madara opens his mouth, about to ask more when Sakura quickly continues, "But I don't want to talk about Sasuke. As you saw in my memories," Sakura says bitterly, making Madara look away for a moment, before she continues, "he and I didn't really leave on the best of terms."

"Why did he leave you?" Tobirama asks.

Sakura sighs, rubbing the back of her neck again. "Family business," she mutters before realizing how that sounded. Like he was sent to war against the Senju. Sakura looks up sharply, looking between the three men. Madara's eyebrows are pulled together in thought, trying to sift through all the faces of his clansmen in his mind while Tobirama is looking at Madara and Hashirama looks horrified.

"Where is he now?" Hashirama asks. "Do you know if he's alright?"

Sakura didn't know how to answer that, for she honestly didn't know. Could he be around here somewhere, like Shikamaru and Akamaru were? Maybe. But she didn't know for sure. Could the unthinkable have happened? Could Sasuke be...?

"I don't know," Sakura says, looking away. "He left... I saw him a few times... but he's different... I don't know where he is. If he's okay... I don't know." Sakura glares at them now. "You saw what he did. He tried to kill me."

"Why..?" Hashirama asks softly.

"Because he was born without a heart," Sakura snaps, jumping to her feet, turning her glare toward Hashirama, surprising herself with how mad she was. She didn't know if she was mad about Sasuke, as it is sort of a sensitive subject, or if she was still angry about them invading her memories, either way she was more mad than she realized. "He's blinded by revenge and can't see the good that's right in front of him. He's looking at the past, unable to see that the people that really love him now are right in front of him!" Sakura's fists curl in rage, body shaking a bit in rage. "So forgive me if I don't know the specifics of his reasoning behind his asshole-ery."

Sakura lets out a deep sigh, trying to force out all the rage that had blossomed in her chest the size of the Shinju tree. She takes a few breaths to slow down her escalated heart beat before letting her shoulders droop. She hated the bitter taste of anger in her mouth. She's always so quick to rage, she hates it, yet she can't seem to stop herself.

"I'm sorry," Sakura says, looking at Hashirama. "I'm sorry. You didn't deserve that... Sasuke... he's a touchy subject for me. I know you all have questions but I really don't have any answers for you." None that I can say, Sakura thinks, knowing it's stupid to say that outwardly.

"It's okay..." Hashirama says slowly, glancing over at Madara, who appears to want to ask more, but respectfully snaps his jaw shut. "I'm sorry to have brought it up."

Sakura shakes her head, waving his apology away.

Tobirama's eyes, which were glued to her face a moment ago, shoot up past her. "Sakura," he says lowly, red eyes narrowed slightly.

Sakura stares at him for a split second before twisting around to see Shikamaru at the door, he's leaning heavily against the frame, as it is the only thing holding him up. His face is pale, his cheeks are red and he's squinting at her, as if unable to see clearly though the fever induced haze. His brown hair, usually pulled up into a ponytail at the crown of his head, is around Sakura's wrist, his hair is now brushing against his bare shoulders, slightly tanned chest glistening wih

His breathing is ragged and when his eyes lock onto Sakura, he grinds out, "What are you doing, Sakura?"

"What?" Sakura asks, stepping up onto the porch. Akamaru turns a bit so that he can see Shikamaru too, ears perked. "What are you talking about, Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru's narrow brown eyes fly over to Madara. "Madara Uchiha. Are you insane, Sakura? What... what are you doing with Madara Uchiha?" He sounds breathless, wheezing as if in pain. Madara looks confused about being the center of attention, black eyes flickering over to Sakura.

Horrible realization crosses Sakura's face. "No, Shikamaru it's not what you think. Madara-sama isn't bad. Look who he's standing beside. Shikamaru, look!" Sakura steps up next to him and looks over at Madara, he's frowning deeply, not sure why he was brought up.

Shikamaru lets out a shaky breath before obeying, looking through squinted eyes at Hashirama, eyebrows pulling together more. "Is... is that the F-"

"Hashirama Senju, Senju clan leader," Sakura cuts him off, shifting nervously, hoping that none of the founder caught Shikamaru's verbal slip. "And beside the porch is Tobirama Senju, Lord Hashirama's little brother."

Shikamaru stares at Hashirama for a moment, before looking over at Tobirama. He frowns deeply, like he didn't understand something. He looks over at Madara for a split second before looking down at Sakura. "What are you doing with them? Don't you remember a word of what Naruto told us to do?"

Sakura's eyebrows shoot up. "Naruto? No, I don't remember anything, Shikamaru! All I remember is... is Obito and... and the war! What happened with... with all of that? How are we here?"

Shikamaru stares down at her for a moment, as if wondering if she was just playing him, but when he registers the serious, and almost deperate, look on her face, begging for answers, he looks worried. "Sakura," he says, voice lowering due to his fever, "the war ended. We went home. You don't remember anything?"

Sakura stares up at him with wide eyes. "We... we went home?" She shakes her head. "Why don't I remember any of this?"

Shikamaru opens his mouth, about to say something, before he teeters a bit, blinking slowly. A bead of sweat slides down his temple. "I don't know. And right now, I don't care. All I care about is that Naruto gave us two things to remember before he sent us here. Two things we had to do..." he doubles over a bit, leaning even heavier against the door frame. "One, was when we awoke, we would meet up as soon as we can, all of us. And two; at all costs we are to avoid the Uchiha and Senju clans."


	13. Helping Madara

Sakura stares at Shikamaru for a moment, half expecting him to burst out laughing, punch her in the shoulder and tell her that he was just messing with her and to not take him so seriously. But after a moment of awkward silence Sakura realized that this wasn't Naruto. This wasn't Kiba. This was Shikamaru. Shikamaru wasn't the type of person to joke around in a serious situation like this. Especially when it's obvious that he's not feeling well. He may give a bit of teasing jab sometimes, but rarely does he go out of his way to make a joke. He's smart enough to think them up on the fly.

Sakura quickly walks over to her teetering friend, noting that his moments of somewhat lucidness is fading quickly as his fever is taking him again. She wraps her arms around Shikamaru's waist to hold him up. The skin of his waist and ribs is burning under Sakura's finger tips, alerting her that while his fever has lessened since he got here, it's not over yet. Normally, it would be a sign of great worry for someone to have a fever for as long as Shikamaru has had his, but two things work in their favor: one being that Sakura is a powerful medical shinobi capable of healing the damages. The second is that Shikamaru's place as a Nara makes his big ol' brain more durable than most others. It can take the heat a lot longer than most others, no pun intended.

"Shikamaru," Sakura says slowly, "let me take you back to bed, you really shouldn't be standing around right now." Shikamaru mumbles something incoherent before pushing his weight away from the door frame and onto Sakura. She easily accepts his weight without a problem, but his height makes it a little awkward for Sakura to hold him, but she manages and helps him back into the bed. Akamaru follows after her, sitting down by his side while he sleeps.

Sakura knew Shikamaru needed to be resting now, but there was another reason she insisted he lie down. She could feel a cold, strange atmosphere surrounding them now. What Shikamaru said was no doubt both alarming and suspicious. For both Sakura and the three founders. While she can understand why she should have stayed away from the two major founding clans for her home village, it's strange that it was an "at all costs" type of order.

Chewing on her bottom lip, Sakura debates the possibility of the three founders just leaving and calling it a day, but she's not dumb enough to humor that notion for long. On top of that, it would be foolish of her to let them simmer in their own thoughts on the issue for longer than necessary, and while Sakura needs those precious seconds to come up with a believable theory or explanation for Shikamaru's words, but for them, it's time for their imaginations to run wild.

Kami, Sakura hated Shikamaru right now. He must have been out of it enough to forgo both common sense and self-preservation instincts. If he had a healthy dose of either of them, he wouldn't have put Sakura into the position that he did. Now she has to hope that she can somehow talk her way out of this no doubt dangerous situation he put her in, or hope that she's given the benefit of the doubt.

Sakura makes sure Shikamaru is comfortable before pushing herself to her feet and walking out of the house to see that Hashirama, Tobirama and Madara were standing right where she had left them. Three sets of eyes locked onto Sakura as she walked out. Sakura closes the door behind herself, hoping that will somehow keep Shikamaru from waking up and coming out to put the pressure on her more. He's already made a big mess of this situation.

When Sakura was the victim, she could get away with just about anything. Especially with Hashirama. But now the tables have turned. Now she could be very dangerous and she isn't even sure she knows how to make them believe otherwise.

"I'm sorry about him," Sakura says, sitting down on the porch, hoping that she looked unthreatening. "He's delirious with fever right now." She runs a hand through her hair, sighing.

"What did he mean?" Tobirama asks bluntly, red eyes like liquid magma, staring down at her.

Sakura's heart rate picks up and she brings a hand to her neck to try and cover for the artery there. She takes a moment, wondering what she could say to that, she didn't really know what Shikamaru meant.

"I don't know," Sakura says softly. "I... I thought everyone was dead. I was certain I was the last one..." She shakes her head. "But... they aren't. They are alive and out there." Sakura's emotions fluctuate from relieved to worried. Why is there more people here? Not that she minds, but it was hard to wrap her mind around why she was here, she couldn't even begin to figure out why others were too. What happened after the war? Why can't she remember it?

Sakura suddenly feels anxious, looking around as if her friends and family would suddenly start coming out of the woods and back into her life as if they never left in the first place. But no one came walking through the trees. Wherever her loved ones are now, it's not here. They are still out there, and when Shikamaru is healthy enough and they have some semblance of direction, they'll go looking for them.

"Sakura," Hashirama says, walking closer to the pink haired girl, drawing her emerald green eyes up to his warm brown ones, "did you honestly not know that anyone from your home was out there?"

Sakura lowers her hand to her lap and look deep into those kind brown eyes, that have been nothing but sad since they accidently invaded her mind. She knows that he deeply regretted breaking her trust by looking at her memory, but she knows it wasn't malicious on his part. Now that there is something shady going on that puts her in a particularly bad light, he is giving her the chance to explain as much as she can without the pressure Madara or Tobirama would have no doubt put on her in their suspicion.

It took Sakura a moment to realize that one of Hashirama's hands was on the wood floor that is beneath Sakura, right next to hers. It was a strange thing for her to notice right away, but only seconds later, she realized why. He could feel her heartbeat through the wood. If she lied, her heart rate would pick up, along with other physical tells a body gives away when under stress.

Sakura blinks slowly, looking up into his deep brown eyes, pink brows pulled together slightly as she says, "No. I had no idea. I thought... I thought I was the only one."

Hashirama stares at her for a few moments, looking for any tells that she was lying before nodding slowly and leaning back to give her some respectful space. "I believe you," he says. "Do you know why you were... told to stay away from us?"

Sakura shakes her head slowly. "No, not really. I don't remember any of that. I can only theorize."

A quick glance at an obviously unhappy Tobirama makes Hashirama ask, "We would love to hear it. I'm sure it's better than what we are thinking."

"I sure hope so," Tobirama mutters, eyes locked onto the side of Sakura's face, making her uncomfortable again.

"If we were brought here," Sakura says delicately, hoping that her vagueness wouldn't make them think she's with holding something possibly dangerous for them from them, "then it was probably because we were put into a situation that we couldn't get out of..." She shakes her head. "I haven't the foggiest idea what, though, and as for where the Uchiha and Senju clans come in, it's probably because you've been embroiled in war for so long that it's counter-productive to even come here looking for help. It would just be pulling two war-torn clans into a problem that they have no reason to be part of. But that's only if I had to guess."

"That..." Tobirama says slowly, "is logical. And your leader, how close do you know them? The way they think and possible reasoning?"

Sakura looks into the red eyes that have settled significantly. She's not out of the woods yet - no pun intended - but using logic against such a logical thinker like Tobirama was the best way to settle his mistrust.

"We are close," Sakura admits. "She's my master. Lady Tsunade."

All three of their eyebrows shot up. Sakura looks between them confused, unable to understand their shock. It's Madara who finally clears it up for her by asking, "Your village is run by a woman?" Then, a split second later, he says, "I'm sorry. That sounded..."

"Sexist?" Tobirama asks.

"Pretentious," Hashirama guess a moment later. They both look at each other curiously.

Madara glares at them, cheeks coloring a bit. He obviously didn't mean to sound like either of those. Regardless, Sakura was both impressed by Tobirama using 'sexist' and unaffected by Madara's surprise and perhaps skepticism about Tsunade - who was a woman - being the leader of anything short of a small clan. It's usually males that ran the families. Even heiresses would marry husbands and either meld the two clans or families together, or he would take her name and reign over the clan.

"Well, either way," Madara says stiffly, "I don't mean for that to come out as offensive. I apologize."

Sakura shrugs her shoulders. "I'm not mad about it. I know Lady Tsunade is a good leader, despite being a woman. But I do accept your apology. Thanks."

"You said something about a war," Tobirama says, crossing his arms over his chest. "and about a village. How big are we talking? Is it a large village like the capital cities of the Lands or like us?"

Sakura crosses her legs, happy that their questions has stopped being suspicious and is back to being curious. Thankfully Sakura has earned a lot of cookie points, but also a lot of believe-me-on-good-faith points too. "Well, if we're thinking logically, your village; with the Senju, Uchiha, Akimichi, Sarutobi and Yamanaka clans, would probably be a couple hundred people. Somewhere between 2 hundred to mid 3 hundred at the most. My village maintained a standing force of around 13,000 active shinobi."

All three of their jaws dropped. They stare at her as if she was insane. Like she pulled that number out of thin air. Sakura looks around at the three men, eyebrows raised.

"What?" She says after an entire minute of silence.

"Y-Your village was capable of maintaining a population of 13 thousand people?" Madara mutters, face pale.

Sakura scratches the back of her head, realizing their surprise. There are very few villages, especially during this time of Sengoku Jidai, that had so many people in it besides capital cities, like in the Land of Fire, Water, Wind, Lightning and Earth. That sounds about right for this era. The capital cities in this era would be somewhere around 15-20 thousand people.

"No, that was our standing shinobi force," Sakura says slowly. "They didn't all reside within the village, we had many bases outside the village and outposts in all kinds of nearby villages. But the village alone, that doesn't include the force that was stationed in the village - that means civilians, merchants, regular diplomats, the likes - the village held about 30 thousand people that don't have even an ounce of shinobi training," Sakura says. "Lady Tsunade is an amazing leader that had to care for populous on a grand magnitude. She may not be a perfect leader, but she was damn good one. And while women aren't thought of very highly here, I want to tell you that she would destroy anyone who would harm the village her family built. So something must have happened, something must have made her agree to... whatever measures we are taking because of whatever happened." Sakura sighs deeply. "I just don't know what. I'm sorry."

Tobirama whistles, shaking his head as if he didn't know how to fathom those numbers. Madara looks greatly impressed, wrapping one arm around his ribs and the other on reaches up and cups his chin, lips moving but no sound coming out.

But not Hashirama. His face was twisted in a look of horror. "30 thousand people... died in the attack on your village...?" That sombers up Tobirama and Madara really quickly.

Sakura looks away, letting out a slow whoosh of breath. "I don't know how many were there when it was attacked..." She brings a thumb up to chew on the nail for a moment, trying to force away the image of Pein destroying her home, blasting all the buildings away like they were paper in his path. The power of the Rinnegan, or perhaps it's just Pein, is something to be both admired, and feared. "But it was a lot," Sakura says softly, trying to block out the defining sound of building exploding and people screaming. Sakura shakes her head hard, trying to dislodge all of the memories.

"How could someone like that be stopped?" Hashirama asks hesitantly. He didn't have to say it, or perhaps he didn't want to, but Sakura knew what he was trying to say - or maybe not say? - all too well. But this was a part of the story that Sakura could say without horrible flashbacks. It was a part of the story she was proud of. Proud enough to admit.

"That would have been Naruto. He may not be the smartest person in the world, or the most tactful, but no matter how many times you beat him down, he'll get back up and beat you down three times over," Sakura says, smiling faintly. In her mind's eye, she could see the beaming blond that was once a person of great annoyance to her, but was now a great source of love and comfort. And she didn't realize until just this moment, that she missed him so much. She's not sure what happened near the end of the war, but obviously he survived since he was telling them orders before they were sent back in time, but she's still worried.

Silly, goofy, but reliable Naruto could be out there somewhere. Like a child, lost, confused and a little dense. But it'll be okay. Sakura will keep her eyes and ears open for him and all their other friends. Whomever else is out there, Sakura is going to find them, figure out why they are here and what they need to do before doing what they can to return home.

So badly, Sakura wants to see the knucklehead. Who knew she'd miss him so much?

"Your friend must be amazing," Hashirama says softly, eyes wide. "That is... is truly impressive."

Sakura lets out a breathy laugh. "Yeah, he is. Dumb as a box of rocks, but you'll never meet anyone else with more heart."

Hashirama offers a little smile at that. But there was a touch of weariness too. That was a lot to swallow. Those were big numbers and the power of a god on a shadowy face. Sakura can't blame them for their unease.

"So what now?" Madara asks, breaking a long winded silence with his soft, low voice.

Sakura blinks a few times, feeling her stomach plummet. "Well, do you still have someone that you need me to look at, Madara-sama?" Sakura asks, running a hand through her long pink fringe.

Madara blinks a few times, confused before he suddenly remembered what he had asked of her. He looks around for a moment, appearing to be organizing his thoughts, before clearing his throat and saying, "Yeah, I did. But.. that... that can wait for a while."

Sakura slowly shakes her head. "I may not have a lot of time," she says. "Once Shikamaru wakes up, I'm sure he'll want us to get going so I'd better tie up loose ends now while I'm-"

"'Going'?" Tobirama interjects. "Where are you going?"

"I have to go," Sakura says, looking over her shoulder for a moment, pausing her breathing to listen inside the house for any sounds. She'll have to check on Shikamaru soon. "Now that I know my friends and family are out there, alive, I have to go find them. Plus, we were sent here for some reason and something tells me that it is of the upmost importance. As much as I like it here - love it, even - I can't stay. I have to return to the real world. If my family is out here, I have to find them and complete whatever mission I was put on."

"I can understand that," Tobirama says slowly, "the mission is always what must come first."

There is a strange silence that follows. The four of them just look around at everything but each other, not really knowing what to say. Sakura always knew she would have to leave and return home, no matter what trials she would have to face before doing that, but somehow it seems too soon now. While there is a slight bump in the road at the end of the contest, for the most part this entire experience has been both eye-opening and rewarding. Sakura has always been very interested in the founding of her home, but to see it happen was an actual honor.

Sakura came to really like the three founders and their village. She knew she'd have to leave someday, and even though she's been missing home like crazy since the beginning, but now that the beginnings of the opportunity to go home is appearing, Sakura's a little sad. She wants to go home and see everyone, make sure they are all okay, but she always wants to stay here, keep building the relationships that she has been with everyone here. The three founders, Aya and Salma, they were all becoming important to her.

She was really going to miss them.

"Who is this... Shikamaru?" Tobirama asks, probably more so to break the strained silence rather than actually caring about the answer.

"We went to school together," Sakura says.

"School?" Hashirama says, like the word didn't make sense to him.

Sakura tries to think back to this time. "Um, lessons. They gather a bunch of children together under a sensei and teach them - or in this case, us, - in a room and teach us about shinobi life. What it means to be a shinobi. How to react in certain situations. Our history and even the basics. The main weapons of a shinobi; kunai, shuriken, senbon, makibishi spikes and bomb tags. The ranking system within the village, things of the like. Then we are tested on all of that and if we pass, we are recognized by the village as shinobi and allowed into the ranks."

"Huh," Hashirama says, blinking curiously. "That sounds... effective."

"It cuts down on specialized training," Madara says slowly. "Now it's not so surprising that they were able to get numbers in the thousands. They've a new standard that perhaps is easier to reach and then what? Are you just put into a preset position in the force or what?"

"We... stop being Academy students," Sakura says slowly, wondering if this was still okay, "and move on to students under an experienced teacher. More specialized training for three students and one teacher. A four man squad. Then we take on missions to support the village while learning shinobi techniques. The sensei can give one final test to see if the graduates can work together as a team and decide if he or she will take them on as students or send them back to the Acadamey for another year of training."

Hashirama lights up. "What a way to build comradery! Getting older and more experienced ninja to take on young students to show them the way!" He's practically bouncing up and down in excitement.

"There was something else that stuck with me," Tobirama says, bringing up his right hand to cup his chin while closing his eyes. "While I agree with Hashirama that it is a good idea for experienced shinobi to take on newbies and show them the ropes. In a less controlled environment, it allows them to learn how to act on the fly with missions that don't always go according to plan. Interesting."

Sakura nods. "Yeah, so I was in class with Shikamaru, we graduated together. That's how I know him."

"I recall you having once said something about graduates usually had missions that kept them within the village..." Madara says, looking over at Sakura.

She nods again, running long thin fingers through her fringe. "Yeah, do little helpful things around the village. Like painting fences or walking dogs. The villager who wants the mission goes to the mission office and tells them the specifics of their request, the office decides the rank and then puts the order in. They pay for the mission once it is completed. The village takes a portion of the payment and rest is split amongst all that were involved in the mission's success. D-rank missions, which is typically what we would get after graduation don't pay much but are numerous in number. It only escalates from there."

"How so?" Tobirama asks.

"Anyone can take D-rank missions, they are basically odd jobs. C-rank is slightly more advanced and usually require leaving the village for and some form of combat against weak human opponents like bandits and highwaymen. B-rank missions are more important, require battling against ninja combatants. A-rank missions are of vital importance to the village and could range from infiltrating and exfiltration from enemy bases or even villages, kidnap, espionage, the likes. S-rank is everything above that. I've heard rumors of SS-rank missions, but I've never been on one. But the official ranking only went up to S," Sakura says. "The higher the rank, the more one would have to pay to have it completed."

"Another way to build funds for the village," Madara says. "We may not need their help after all. The profits from this event look promising thus far."

"Help?" Sakura asks, blinking in confusion. "Someone is offering to help the village?"

Hashirama sighs. "Somewhat. We are trying to get people to acknowledge the idea of a shinobi village. Most believe it is doomed to implode because of our nature as warring clans, but hopefully after this event more people will be willing to back us without so many... strings attached." He scratches the back of his neck, running the toe of his shoe through the dirt, drawling circles.

Sakura tilts her head, wanting to ask what exactly was going on, but is given the impression that Hashirama didn't really want to talk about it. It's obviously a source of great stress for him, judging by the worn, annoyed look on his face. So Sakura let it drop, figuring if it mattered, she would learn about it eventually. But if Sakura's ideas were helping relieve some of that stress and help form the Hidden Leaf, who was Sakura to complain?

"So..." Sakura says slowly, "have you guys thought of a name for your village yet?"

"Not yet," Hashirama says, cheering up a bit at the change in subject, "but once it's become an actual village, then we can think of a fitting name." He beams, excited now. "I can't wait."

"Well contain your excitement for a bit longer, Hashirama," Tobirama says, dropping his hand from his chin and opening his red eyes again. "We have to name the victor of the competition and count up the donations... though, they do appear to be promising by preliminary count. Although no where near what we need to get this village on it's feet."

"How very optimistic of you," Madara mutters, ignoring the droll look Tobirama sent his way.

"I'm a realist," Tobirama says blandly. "And while the numbers look pleasing so far, they still aren't what we want. Optimism is nice and all, but ultimately won't mean anything in real life. If optimism is what will get us the rest of the money we need, then by all means, you tell that optimism outlet over there," he gestures toward a doe eyed Hashirama, "to keep up the good work, but until it starts getting us the numbers, I'm going to keep being a realist."

Madara lets out a whoosh of breath before looking away. Hashirama walks over to his friend and puts a hand on his shoulder, smiling kindly down at him when black eyes flickered over to him.

"Don't worry, Madara, I can be the optimistic one, Tobirama can be the realistic one and you can be our happy medium," he says, patting his childhood friend on the shoulder.

"Whatever," Madara says dismissively. "We should be getting back soon, our meeting is going to start soon."

Hashirama sighs, as if the meeting has already drained the life out of him despite it having not happened yet. It reminds Sakura that they need to give Hashirama a day off to relax before she leaves. This is probably a pretty good reason for why the First Hokage died young. If she remembered correctly, the First died in his sleep while in his forties. Or was it fifties? While that is old for this time, Senju are cousins of the Uzumaki clan and have longer lifespans than average humans. The Uzumaki moreso, but still, being a pureblood Senju, he died way too young. It was theorized that it was stress from building the village and years of war under his belt.

The stress ended up shortening his life significantly.

If Sakura can do something to help ease the stress on him to give him more time with future Tsunade, then Sakura would be willing to do just about anything to make it so. Every time Sakura got Tsunade to talk about the First it was always with such love and affection. She must have greatly missed her grandfather and only have a few short years with him was not enough. Sakura didn't know how well their relationship was, but it had to be good enough for Tsunade to miss it and for that, Sakura hopes this might selfishly give her beloved master more time with the First.

"Yes," Hashirama sighs, pulling Sakura from her thoughts. "We should be heading out now. Sakura-chan," he looks pensive again, like he's worried Sakura will bite his head off for what he's about to say, "if you need something, please come ask me, alright?"

Sakura wanted to hold onto her earlier anger but didn't have the strength, nor the will to do it. She doesn't know how much time she'll have with them and doesn't want to waste any more of it angry. Maybe she can seethe about it later, but for now, she will forgive.

She smiles faintly and nods. "Yes, sir. Thank you."

Hashirama looks genuinely relieved. "You're welcome. Alright gentlemen, let us go and brave the other clans." With that and a little wave, he heads back toward the growing village. Tobirama bows his head in farewell before following after his elder brother. Madara doesn't move as the white haired man passes him, big black eyes glued to the dirt a few feet in front of him. He listens to the sound of Tobirama's retreating footsteps before raising his eyes to Sakura once the white haired man is no longer within hearing distance.

"Pardon me for brushing you off earlier..." he finally says.

Sakura tilts her head to the side, not remembering what he was talking about. "Um, it's fine..."

"About the person I need your help with, will you be able to see them tomorrow morning? I'm sure they are resting today," he says with a soft hint of hesitation to his voice, as if worried that Sakura would take her word back after having already agreed to help.

"Sure," Sakura says. "I'll have to make sure that Shikamaru is safe to be left alone for a bit before I go. I'll let you know tomorrow, if that's alright?"

Madara looks relieved. "Thank you." Then he too tips his head a bit in farewell before walking away as well. Sakura watches him until he's disappeared between the trees that surround her house before standing up and heading back into her house to tend to a peacefully, yet slightly feverish, Shikamaru Nara. She settles down next to him, reaching out to pet the top of Akamaru's head, his tail wags a bit at that, before looking down at her friend, relieved to have dodged a potentially deadly situation earlier.

 

Sakura managed to break Shikamaru of his fever in the middle of the evening and helped him sleep restfully throughout the night. About midnight is when Sakura managed to finally fall into a light, dreamless sleep.

It was late into the morning when Akamaru licking her cheek woke her up. She groggily crawls to her feet to let him outside, filling up his bowl of water and putting it out there for him while checking on Shikamaru. She feeds him more medicine for infection and fever, should it come back, and a bit of water. A few barks from Akamaru pulls Sakura's attention from Shikamaru and she heads to the door, stepping out to see Akamaru was barking at a cautiously approaching Madara, who was keeping a weary eye on the small bear of a dog.

"It's alright, Akamaru," Sakura says and he immediately settles, tilting his head to the side curiously squinting at Madara before sniffing the air and continues wondering around Sakura's yard. Sakura closes the door into the house and crosses her arms over her chest to protect herself from the slight morning chill seeping into her light yukata she had put on the night before. "Good morning," she says.

"To you as well," Madara murmurs, stepping up a few feet from the porch. "How is your friend?"

"Better," Sakura says. "How is your morning going so far, my lord?"

"Fine, and yours?"

"Same," Sakura says pleasantly. "Would you like for me to come see whomever is hurt now? I think Shikamaru should be fine for a bit."

Madara nods slowly. "If you can," he says softly. "I'm not sure what you'll be able to do... but if you can do something then I will be eternally grateful."

Sakura blinks a few times at that. "Oh, this person must be really important to you."

"Yes..." Madara says illusively, obviously not comfortable talking about it out in the open, or maybe at all. He does appear to be a very private person it's kind of an honor to be let into his world. Even if it is only a little bit.

Sakura nods slowly, waiting a moment to see if he was going to say anything more, but when he shifted his weight from one foot to the other uncomfortably, she figured that was all she was going to get from him for now.

"Alright," she says, "give me just one moment to change and get ready then we can go."

"Very good," he says, letting out a soft breath before turning around and quietly watches Akamaru sniff around the new surroundings, barking happily at a squirrel taunting him from a high up tree branch of the tree in front of the dog.

Sakura gives a little laugh at the Inuzuka partner and heads inside, quickly changing into her regular attire, check on Shikamaru one more time before bringing in Akamaru's water bowl and laying some food down for him - more scraps. When Akamaru is back in the house, looking after Shikamaru, Sakura seals up the house behind her and turns to see Madara talking to an Uchiha in hushed tones. Sakura waits patiently until the Uchiha bows and runs off before approaching the Uchiha patriarch.

"Ready?" Madara asks, turning to the pink haired girl.

"Hai," Sakura says. Madara nods his head once, curtly, before spinning on his heel and leading the way toward the Uchiha compound on the opposite side of the village with Sakura following closely behind him. The village is starting to wake up. People are opening the shutters to their homes, husbands and sons are leaving to defend the village and do other odd jobs trying to get the village onto it's feet.

"Madara-sama?" Sakura calls out.

"Hm?" He hums, tilting his chin toward her a bit to show he's listening.

"Who ended up winning the competition yesterday?" Sakura asks. "I heard everyone cheering yesterday but I was too busy taking care of Shikamaru to hear."

"Ahh," Madara hums. "It was Keiga Uchiha."

"Keiga!" Sakura says, mildly surprised. "Well, I guess I shouldn't be shocked. He did wipe the floor with me when we had our battle. He was very gentlemanly about it though," Sakura says, bemused. "I find it hard to believe that he has a bad bone in his body."

Madara makes a noise of agreement. "He's a good boy. Extremely modest. Perhaps even to a fault. Hashirama had to practically drag him in front of everyone to get him to acknowledge his victory. Even then he was mumbling something about donating it to the village." Madara shakes his head. "He's a good kid. I'm proud he's one of my clansmen."

Sakura smiles, surprised at Madara, almost glowing with pride. There is a small, happy smile on his lips. It surprises Sakura somehow that Madara was able to talk so positively about someone. Most of the time he's monotone or dry witted, but family is different. It should have been obvious to Sakura, but somehow the fact that Madara seems to deeply love his family is surprising to him. In some ways, it's almost like she's looking for reasons to not like him. Make it easier to fight him in the future, but he's making it very hard to. Sakura's beginning to understand what Hashirama saw in him.

For all of his short comings, one being his inability to really express himself, Madara is not a bad guy.

They walk up to a nice big home, no doubt Madara's, in the center of the compound. He opens the door and steps aside, gesturing for Sakura to enter.

She doesn't move right away from right in front of the doorway. Instead, she asks dumbly, "I thought I was going to heal someone."

Madara looks down at her curiously. "You are," he says simply. Then after a moment of Sakura blankly staring at him, he elaborates, "He's in here."

"Ahh," Sakura says, stepping inside. She pulls off her shoes, laying them neatly in the corner before following Madara deeper into the house.

He stops outside a door and wraps on it with his knuckles, pausing to hear the soft, "Come in," before opening the door and stepping inside. Sakura follows him into a relatively plain room. There was very little presence in this room. If Sakura didn't plainly see a bed in the center of the room with someone sitting up on it, she would assume that no one lived here.

The man in the middle of the room is around Sakura's age. His black hair is long and bushy, going to his shoulders, contrast to his very pale skin. Uchiha naturally have pale skin, but this guy looks like he hasn't seen sunlight in a long time. When he turns his head toward them, his black hair falls into his large, pitch black eyes, obscuring them a bit. The dark blue kimono he was wearing is almost too big for him. The front is opened up a bit, revealing a thin strip of pale flesh. The covers are pooled around his waist.

"Madara," the boy says, black eyes strangely unfocused on them as the two approach him slowly, "welcome back."

"This is Sakura Haruno," Madara says softly, hands curled up into fists at his side. "She is the medical ninja I was telling you about."

He tilts his head slightly before saying, "You may sit," he makes a gesture vaguely to his left, closest to them. Sakura doesn't move for a moment, wondering who he was talking to before noticing Madara's eyes flickering over to her. Embarrassed, she lowers herself next to the Uchiha.

"How are you, Sakura-san?" the boy asks pleasantly, turning his black eyes toward the wall in front of him.

"I'm fine," Sakura says slowly, looking at him a little closer. He has lines under his eyes, similar to Madara's, and dark circles. "Having trouble sleeping?"

"A bit," he says, uninterested. "But that is nothing new."

Sakura doesn't say anything for a moment, looking at his prominent collar bone sticking out from under his kimono. She could almost make out the lines of his breast plate. He's no doubt malnourished.

"I see..." Skaura says, glancing over at Madara, who was looking between them anxiously.

The boy must have picked up on Madara's anxiety, even without looking at him, because he gruffly says, "Stop hovering, Madara. Go away. You wanted me to do this, so at least let me do it in peace."

Sakura blinks in surprise at the Uchiha's lack of respect, looking over at Madara, hoping to avoid some kind of altercation between the two. But instead of looking pissed off at the lack of formality from the younger boy, Madara looks ashamed. He mumbles something under his breath before slipping out the door, closing it softly behind him with a soft, "call me if you need me."

Once the door is shut, the boy sighs, "Clingy bastard."

Sakura's eyebrows shoot toward her hairline. "Well... you two are... close."

The boy laughs, smiling a bit, but never taking his eyes off the wall. "I should hope so. He's my big brother. Oh, forgive me for not introducing myself. I'm Izuna Uchiha."


	14. Izuna Uchiha

Sakura stares at him blankly, wondering if she had ever heard that name before, although unfortunately, it doesn't ring a bell. But what was interesting was that Madara had a brother, that was something that she didn't know.

"I..." Sakura says slowly, "I was unaware Madara-sama had a little brother. My apologies, my lord."

Izuna shakes his head, waving her concern away. He closes his eyes and snorts loudly. "Don't worry about it. Ever since I was hurt..." his eyes narrow, eyebrows pulling together tightly. There was a sudden darkness to his face. Compared to the serene calmness that he had when Sakura first walked into the room, this was a complete 360 from then.

It was suddenly like all of the heat in the room was sucked out. Sakura shivered unintentionally. Sakura stares at Izuna for a moment, happy that he isn't able to see the surprise and confusion on her face.

Quietly, tentatively, Sakura asks, "How were you hurt, my lord?"

Izuna's stare, though unseeing, hardens like dull black diamonds. "Tobirama," he snarls. "It was Tobirama that did this to me. He took away my life, my chakra. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be in this situation at all. He did this to me." There was so much anger, so much rage, that it took Sakura completely by shock. There is one thing to hate someone for hurting you, but this was so much more than that. There was pure hatred for him and his entire existence. That isn't natural anger. That's irrational anger.

"Lord Tobirama hurt you..?" Sakura asks delicately. She didn't like the way Izuna spoke of the future Second Hokage. It's understandable that he hurt Izuna and they probably won't be buddy-buddy, but Sakura just couldn't believe his rage.

Izuna closes his eyes and a eerie calmness settles over him. Sakura eyes him wearily. When Izuna opens his practically useless eyes again, they are sad and defeated. "Yes," he says. "I lost to him of all people. The wound he gave me put me in a coma for a week. Our healers managed to keep me alive as the infection became worse, but somehow I'm here. This isn't life," he mutters. "This is a slow, punishing death."

Sakura doesn't respond right away. After a long silence, a lot longer than what should be comfortable, Sakura reaches out and puts her hand on his shoulder, waiting until he turns his unseeing eyes toward her before saying, softly, "That's why I'm here. Maybe I can help you out, somehow."

Izuna's entire demeanor turns tired, like he's no longer angry. Just sad and defeated. "Yes. I hope that you can."

Sakura's hand glows green and moves from his shoulder and begins to scan his body. Running slowly over all his limbs, his core, his head. She's being careful not to overlook anything. Izuna looked to be in bad shape when she first saw him and now being able to see what's going on beneath the skin just further strengthened that stance. Izuna's been in poor health for a good few months now.

"My brother has been telling me about you," Izuna says after a prolonged silence. Sakura has been so focused on her thoughts that she didn't realize just how quiet the room was. The house even. Either Madara is being really quiet or has stepped out somewhere in the middle of their conversation.

Not knowing how to respond to him, Sakura just mutters, "Oh?" and hopes that'll be enough to prompt him to continue.

It is. "Yes," Izuna sighs. "He didn't much like you in the beginning."

For some reason, that surprises her. "Oh? Why is that?"

Izuna smiles boyishly, staring at the wall in front of him, unseeingly. "He's a drama queen, more than anything." Izuna chuckles at his own words. "But really, he's like a mama bear. You were a stranger invading here and he was more than ready to destroy you without asking any questions."

That sends a shiver of fear through Sakura and a silent thanks to Kami for letting Hashirama be the one in charge. Sakura tried to think back to when she first showed up and if she got any dangerous vibes from Madara. Obviously she did, because she just got done helping stop him in the future, but the him in the present was mistrustful, not dangerous appearing - even though she knew he was. He must have been ready to jump in to kill her at a moment's notice and hid it really well. So well, Sakura's survival instincts couldn't even differentiate the danger of the future to the one sitting right in front of her.

Realizing that Izuna was waiting for her to absorb that information, Sakura slowly says, "Well... lucky me he didn't do anything."

Izuna snorts. "Certainly. Especially because that guy made sure to stick around you. He wouldn't have tried anything with you being watched so closely."

Sakura raised an eyebrow, still unnerved. "Who are you referring to?"

Izuna blinks slowly. "Hashirama."

A strange feeling settles in Sakura's gut. "Hashirama," she echoes. So, Hashirama was protecting her?

"His loyalty to Hashirama is astounding," Izuna says coolly, yet Sakura sensed a hint of anger, just below the surface. But it wasn't nearly as intense as his anger toward Tobirama. Which still didn't sit well with Sakura, but perhaps she was biased.

"What do you mean by that?" Sakura asks, happy that the conversation has turned away from her possible demise.

Izuna shakes his head. "Exactly as I said it. They were 'friends' I guess as kids and he still tries to cling to those moments now as an adult. Forgetting everything that happened between them. Between us." For a moment, Izuna sounded hurt. Almost betrayed. Not like he couldn't forgive, but almost like he felt like at the end of the day his brother would choose Hashirama over him. He was like a little brother that felt like his brother was being taken away from him.

Sakura immediately wondered if Izuna hated the Senju. Like, still hated them. But not nearly with the intensity that he hated Tobirama with. Even though he's been through just as much as everyone else has been on the Uchiha side as any other Uchiha, he's the only one Sakura's met that hasn't let this go. Not really. Well, Kana didn't like the Senju, but that's what it was. General dislike, not hate. Not like Izuna.

His facial expression didn't change, but his voice was flat when he blurted out, surprising Sakura with a monotoned, "I don't hate the Senju."

Sakura's eyes widen for a moment, wondering if when Izuna lost his eyesight, he gained the ability to read minds. She leans away from him a bit, worried that he may be reading her mind right now. She didn't know what to say. It wasn't like she could deny it, she wasn't sure she would be able to be convincing about it. To be honest, with everything that she's heard thus far, she's not sure there is anything that Izuna could say that could convince her that he didn't hate the Senju. Even when he was saying the Senju name he said it sharply, with obvious dislike.

"Okay..." she says wearily. Not really sure why he's saying all of this.

Sakura had to wonder if she was the first person other than Madara that Izuna has spoken to since he got hurt. If that's the case... could Izuna just be lonely? If he spent all of his days cooped up in this room, eyes failing, chakra system a mess to go along with the rest of his body, with Madara as his only company - and even those times have got to be getting strained now that the village is finally starting to get on it's feet - and he's just talking about anything and everything just so Sakura won't leave yet.

Sakura couldn't stop the swell of pity that bloomed in her chest. She didn't know Izuna, not really, but she knew Uchiha and if he knew she pitied him, he would probably hate her. That wasn't a way to win his confidence as his doctor.

"I don't," Izuna says, slightly defensively. "I just don't like them. I don't like what they stand for. I don't like what they did to my brother."

Sakura relaxes a bit, shaking away her crazy thoughts about him reading minds. "Forgive me, Izuna-sama, but what did they do to Madara-sama?"

"He used to have such pride in the Uchiha, now all he can seem to focus on is the Senju. More specifically, Hashirama." Izuna shakes his head, a bitter look crossing his face before he sighs tiredly. "But back to the original reason I brought this up. My brother didn't like you at first. Or perhaps, weary, is the better word. He didn't know what to do with you, but now he has you here, in my room with me. He trusts you, now."

Sakura's eyebrows raise to her hairline. She wanted to keep talking about how Madara had changed since his youth, fascinated by the dynamics of that time that only exists now in memory. But Izuna didn't appear to want to continue that coarse of conversation, so she respected his wishes. She had to lover her hand, it was aching at this point. She wasn't healing him or anything at this point, too engrossed in the conversation.

"How do you figure?" Sakura asks.

Izuna turns his unseeing eyes toward Sakura and somehow she felt like he wasn't able to see her, but that he was looking through her. His expression was relaxed but there was an intensity there that she had seen in Madara's own eyes.

"You're here," Izuna says evenly. "Alone, with me. Madara wouldn't have let you within a hundred yards alone with me if he didn't." That made sense. Madara did strike Sakura as very protective of his family. Especially Izuna, which she can understand.

"I can get that," Sakura says, she runs a hand through her pink hair which was nearing the bottom of her shoulder blades. "You are very important to him. You're his little brother."

Sakura meant it to make Izuna feel better about his relationship with his brother - so that he wouldn't feel like Madara was somehow being taken away from him by Hashirama and Tobirama - but he just sighs again, tired. "I know," he says. "But it seems like now that is the only thing that I am. I can't do anything by myself anymore. It's no way to live. I hate living like this."

His unspoken words hang in the air between them. Izuna didn't have a lot of faith in Sakura being able to do anything for him. He was lonely, yes, but he wasn't delusional. He had been like this for long enough and probably had enough healers in here to tell him the same thing. They can't do anything for him. What Sakura found wrong with him would take time and an experienced healer to help him. Not many of those in this day and age. It's not impossible for Sakura to heal him and she's already coming up a plan, but not many in this time would be able to.

But Hashirama would probably be able to. Even though he probably didn't know what exactly what to do, his chakra may have been able to heal it without much problem. But thankfully he didn't. Now that Sakura knows that he doesn't really know what he's doing - which is still a really scary thought - she's glad that he didn't do anything. She's still worried that he'll mess up something without intending to. He's such a nice person that she doesn't want his good intentions to turn out bad just because he's not a hundred percent sure he knows what he's doing.

Anyway, Sakura feels so bad, looking at Izuna now. This is a man that has lost everything. He can't do anything on his own. Uchiha pride can be crippling. But it's not just Uchiha, Sakura's not sure she would be able to be as calm about this as him. She doesn't blame Izuna for hating to have to live like this. To not really seeing any reason to keep living.

Except for Madara. Madara is Izuna's reason for living, Sakura realizes. But that's probably where is loneliness also stems from too. He doesn't have much else to be here for and his brother is so busy all the time now, it must be so sad.

"I can't even begin to imagine what it's like," Sakura says slowly. "But thank you for telling me about it. It was nice to meet you. I'll be back to see you in a bit." Sakura climbs to her feet, knees cracking from her siting in the same position for so long. Izuna turns his gaze back to the wall across from him, not responding.

She walks over to the door, putting her hand onto the handle, when Izuna finally called out to her.

"Sakura-san?" He calls softly.

Sakura pauses and looks over at him. "Yes?"

"Do you think you can help me? No false pleasantries. Not what I want to hear. The truth," Izuna says softly. "Can you help me?"

Izuna doesn't turn to look at her, and his voice is soft, but his lips press tightly together. He's worried. No, bracing himself, is a better way to look at it. He's been given bad news since the beginning. He's not trying to hope, but it's his life. He wants to live, just not like this. Not anymore.

"I can," Sakura says, but doesn't want to stick around to elaborate how. But she did see a small, hopeful smile cross Izuna's lips, scared to be too hopeful. Scared to have it ripped away.

Sakura closes the door softly behind herself and makes her back to the front of house, where Madara was waiting right outside, staring up at the clouds in the early noon sky. They were small wisps of white cotton balls up there. He looks calm and relaxed to the untrained eye, but looking down at his feet, Sakura can see his toes curling and uncurling in ten second intervals.

"I'm done with my primary analysis," Sakura says, grabbing the older man's attention. Madara turns around sharply.

"And?" He asks, hands curling into fists. "How is he? Do you think you can help him?"

Sakura nods. "Yes, I can help him but there is a lot of things that need to be done. The first of which," Sakura says quickly before Madara can even ask, "you aren't going to like, I think." Madara's jaws snap shut. "We need to talk to Tobirama-sama and Hashirama-sama about this. They need to know what's happening."

"Why?" Madara says defensively. "This doesn't concern them."

Sakura lowers her eyes, knowing that she shouldn't tempt the alpha male in Madara by challenging him with her eyes, especially when it has something to do with his little brother's health.

"True," she says slowly. "I could heal him without them knowing, but there is a bit of a moral dilemma that I need them, as well as you, to help me sort out."

Madara frowns mistrustfully, jaw working under his skin before sighing, eyes narrow. "Okay, fine, let's go find them."

 

After Sakura explains to the two Senju brothers what she had been doing, she gets right down to explaining what's happened with Izuna. neither of them spoke as she talked, willing to let her get it all out before letting their opinions be known. All three founders were listening to her with rapt attention, especially Madara. She told him she could fix him, the only one who's said such. But she was also having a moral dilemma about it, which didn't sit well with him.

"Well, lets start with the obvious," Sakura says, eyes flickering between all three men. "I don't know how much the two of you know, but Izuna-sama is almost completely blind in both eyes. This is due from natural strain on the eyes prolonged use of the Sharingan does without adequate upkeep and rest, just like any muscle. But the infection that Izuna-sama sustained with his chest injury was not properly tended too, or it took too long to be tended too and it cause irrapairable damage to the eyes, along with his chakra system.

"The infection compromised both his immune system and chakra network, making it impossible to mold chakra without extreme exhaustion, and since he's lost his appetite, he's also been unable to take care of his health. He's malnourished and isn't severely underweight, but enough to be worried. He's loosing all his muscle density without eating and proper exorcise. His depression doesn't help in the slightest," Sakura says off handedly.

All three men stare at her, no one knowing what to say, or perhaps waiting for her to explain what they all needed to hear.

"I can heal all of this," Sakura says and eyebrows raise. "I can fix the chakra network, boost his immune system, and all the little stuff. That all can be fixed."

Tobirama tilts his head slightly, considering this, Madara looks physically relieved and Hashirama looks happy. Happy for Madara, or Izuna, Sakura didn't know. Maybe for both of them. She wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

"But?" Tobirama the realists says. "There's got to be a but here."

"What about his eyes?" Madara asks, suddenly worried again. "Is that the problem?"

Sakura nods. "Slightly. I can repair his eyes, return full sight to them."

Madara looks like the planet could explode right now and he wouldn't bat an eyelash. "So what? What's the problem?"

"A few things," Sakura says slowly, looking down at the grain in the wood, wondering why it was suddenly so hard to look at all of them. "Izuna-sama... he... he hates the Senju."

Silence.

More silence.

The soft sound of Sakura's nail scratching at the wood table between them all.

Finally, "What?" Madara says incredulously.

Sakura looks up at him. "Listen, just spending a few minutes in there with him as I have, despite what he says it's obvious that he holds an extreme dislike for the Senju."

"Well sure," Madara says, eyes narrow, "we just got out of war with them. I would be more suspicious if he suddenly liked them. He was never like that."

"Madara-sama, I mean no disrespect in any regards," Sakura says slowly, which only seemed to anger him more so she quickly continues, hoping that he would be able to understand, "but Izuna-sama's wound was caused by Tobirama-sama, and while he dislikes the Senju, he hates Tobirama-sama. Now, normally, I wouldn't let squabbles between two people get in the way of my work-"

"So why are you?" Madara asks bitterly, cutting her off.

Sakura dips her head down a bit, feeling bad. "Izuna-sama will never really be happy until he can see again and in order to allow him that..." she hesitates, worried on how they'll take her next words. "I... I need to make the Sharingan in his eyes stronger. Override the blindness. In order to do that, I need another pair of Uchiha eyes. That would give him the-"

"Eternal Mangekyo," Madara says, cutting her off again. At Hashirama's curious look, he explains, "It's the next stage in the Sharingan, there had been theories on how to activate it, but no one knew for certain..." Suddenly he looks suspicious, turning his black eyes back to Sakura. "How do you know about this?"

"Sasuke," Sakura says, and hopes he leaves it at that.

Thankfully for now, he does, but Sakura doesn't miss the sharpness in Tobirama's eyes.

"I have to be honest with you all," Sakura says, folding her hands on her lap and looking around the table in the meeting room. She waits until they are all looking at her before she says anything. "I have no problem with helping out Izuna-sama, so never think for a moment that that is the case, because it's not. If I wasn't worried about what would happen following the healing, then I would in a heart beat."

"Izuna-sama is cursed," Sakura says. "I'm not completely sure of the specifics, but all I know is that it's something that all Uchiha have. They all get cursed when they activate their Sharingan. It's the reason why some of them can and others can't. Some become strong enough to overcome the curse, and others cannot. The curse makes them act irrational. A good portion of what is keeping Izuna-sama sane and placated, is that he's unable to do anything but..." she trails off, not sure she wants to put her fears into words and hopes no one asks.

"But," Tobirama says, red eyes narrowed, "if he was all fixed...?"

Sakura's shoulders slump. She closes her eyes. "It may not happen right away, or within the next few months, or even years, but if I fixed Izuna-sama without anything happening to his rage, especially when dealing with Tobirama-sama..." she sighs, looking up at the three men through her eyelashes. "I'm sorry, Madara-sama, but he will go after Tobirama-sama. I want to help him, really I do, but Izuna-sama will be elevated to a higher level than where he is now and his curse won't let him stop fighting until he's destroyed everything. That's the irrationalness that the curse forces upon Uchiha. I'm sorry."

No one speaks right away, everyone lost to their own thoughts. Tobirama's got a deep frown on his lips while Hashirama's turned away from them and is staring out the window that was originally to his back and Madara looks like the planet has exploded around him and the heavens have come crashing down around him. He closes his eyes and rubs his hand over his face.

"If I fix Izuna-sama and do nothing about the curse, he will never stop hating Tobirama-sama and it's not a matter of if it'll come to blows, but when. And nothing conventional will stop him. There is no way to keep them separated. Can any of you honestly say that if Tobirama-sama kills Izuna-sama or Izuna-sama kills Tobirama-sama that this alliance will somehow survive?" Sakura asks, eyebrows pulled tightly together, having a horrible feeling in her gut. She doesn't remember Izuna Uchiha in her history and she's starting to understand why.

As she feared, their eyes said it all. Well, Madara's and Tobirama's did. Hashirama was still looking out the window and neither of the other two could bring themselves to look at one another. The painful truth hangs over them like a dark cloud.

"Thank you, Sakura-chan," Hashirama says, finally speaking since this meeting started. He's been listening the entire time and been looking around but had yet to really say anything until now. Sakura, Madara and Tobirama all look over at him. "I'd like to hear all of your takes on what we should do," he says calmly.

"He's my brother, Hashirama," Madara speaks up immediately. "He's suffering! This is all based on assumptions. I know it looks bad and it could turn out to be a big mistake, but he's my baby brother. I can't just condemn him to spending the rest of his life being swallowed up by darkness and wilting away to nothing! That isn't the way for a human being to live! Besides," Madara says defensively, "he shouldn't be punished for something he hasn't done yet, and may never do. It's not right."

"True," Tobirama says sternly, arms crossing over his chest, "but we can't ignore the fact that it could very well become an issue. Is the alliance you and Hashirama been striving for over a decade to have worth being thrown away by your own little brother? All because he can't control his hatred?"

Madara looks like Tobirama just punched him in the gut. "That's not fair... if I acknowledge that this curse exists, I am acknowledging that my entire clan is sick, but if I don't... I'm condemning Izuna to live out he rest of his days like this..." His expression hardens and his eyes flash red. "Damn you, Tobirama. I won't fall for your logic, hear me out, if there is something wrong with my clansmen - and that isn't a confirmation that there is - then I will deal with it, but as far as we know there may not be an issue."

Tobirama suddenly looks dangerous. "Tell me, Madara, should Izuna and I come to blows, what will you do? Will you fight him or me? If you fight him, you lose your brother, you fight me, you lose the alliance."

"Tobirama-sama!" Sakura gasps. "Is there really no way to resolve this without it coming to that?"

Tobirama turns intense red eyes toward her. "You tell me."

Sakura frowns. "I... I don't know..."

"What do you think, Sakura-chan?" Hashirama asks, turning around to face them. His face is smooth and calculating. A strange look to see on the normally jubilant and kind hearted man.

"I think both sides make a good point," Sakura says, slowly. "I don't mean to play devil's advacate, but I know that Izuna-sama will be a problem to this alliance if nothing is done about his rage toward Tobirama-sama, but the answer to calming it could already be in place."

"Explain that for me," Hashirama says simply.

Sakura scratches at the back of her head. "Madara-sama. Izuna-sama obviously loves him very much. His love for Madara-sama may be enough to outweigh his hatred for Tobirama-sama. I can't say for certain, and even if it's not, it may be enough to buy us some time before he can't control it any more." A pause, then, "But on the other hand, if he suspects that Tobirama-sama, or even you, Hashirama-sama, are somehow appearing to be one-upping Madara-sama, it may be enough to drive him over the edge. Even if it wasn't intentional on anyone's part, it doesn't have to make sense to anyone but Izuna-sama."

Madara closes his eyes, resigned to loss. Sakura's playing the middle ground, Tobirama and Madara are on opposite sides and Hashirama, as per usual was the deciding factor. Madara isn't a fool, Hashirama is kind hearted, but he wouldn't put Tobirama in danger, not with something he may not be able to handle. If Sakura was right and by healing Izuna and giving him the Eternal Mangekyo, he would become more powerful than ever before, then Hashirama wouldn't want to risk his little brother's life like that.

Madara knows he wouldn't. But at the same time, Hashirama didn't think like regular people. But in all of things that Hashirama would let slip passed, Sakura didn't have to say what was already clear to everyone, if Izuna did kill Tobirama, his rage would turn to the rest of the Senju. No one would be safe.

But Madara refused to believe that Izuna would piss all over his dream like Tobirama seems to think he would. Izuna isn't a bad kid, never was, but war changed him and because he hasn't had the chance to change his way of thinking, everyone is convinced that he's some sort of demon spawn. Madara hated that Izuna was seen this way. His brother has it so hard.

Madara didn't want to think about it, but bitterly he had to wonder if everything would have been seen differently if Tobirama was in this position and not Izuna. Then again, if it was Tobirama, Hashirama would have probably been able to heal him. Madara tried to get Hashirama to do that, and while his bleeding heart of a childhood friend was all for it, Izuna had to be a little asshole and refuse. He would not accept help from a Senju. He would rather die a slow, painful death than get saved by a Senju.

His pride was going to get him killed. It was also going to take him away from Madara. That made the Uchiha patriarch even more upset. Life was just so unfair. Izuna didn't deserve this, especially if he wasn't able to control it. If the Uchiha really was cursed - which Madara's not sure he knows what to think about that - then at least there is something else to blame.

Maybe... just maybe something could be done. But alas, the fates are cruel.

"What do you think, brother?" Tobirama asks. "What is your decision?"

Hashirama doesn't respond right away. He takes a moment to think about what all of them said. Looking over at Sakura, who wished that she didn't have to put them in this position. Then Tobirama, who wasn't going to let Izuna get all his power back - and more - without a fight, and then Madara, who was so sure that his little brother was never going to have a normal life, and would die young. But he also wanted to be hopeful, that unpredictable Hashirama would somehow, once again, prove his loyalty and ever lasting love to all living things and save Izuna.

He already offered to help Izuna once, hopefully that offer will still be on the table.

Finally, after a long, baited silence, Hashirama reaches out and puts a hand on Madara's shoulder. Sakura watches as Madara's heart plummets into his feet, eyes closing in defeat.

"I'm sorry, brother," Hashirama says, with genuine sorrow, "but I have to think clearly on what is best for everyone, I know that." Madara looks utterly destroyed. All he wanted was for someone - anyone! - to save his brother. To stop Izuna's pain. Now his little brother is going to die young.

"Dammit," Madara says harshly under his breath, voice thick with sadness and grief.

"Sakura-chan," Hashirama says. Sakura looks up at him with large green eyes. "Do what you can to save Izuna, alright?"

Madara and Tobirama's heads snap up toward him, eyes wide as saucers, like Sakura's.

"What?" All three of them say at once.

"I'm sorry, Tobi," Hashirama says to his little brother, smiling sympathetically. "I would never want to put your life in danger but I have faith that you'll be alright. I can honestly say I would be heart broken if I were in the same position as Madara. I would want my best friend to have my back so I must have his. He is right. While this curse does concern me, we have no proof yet of it's existence. While I'm not saying Sakura is a liar," his eyes flicker over to her to show he means that, "I also can't condemn someone for something they haven't even done."

Tobirama sighs, running a hand through his short white hair. "Fine, brother," he says, annoyed. "I will obey your wishes. I just hope this doesn't come back to bite you."

"Me too," Hashirama says softly, then turns his gaze to shocked Madara. "Friend, we will do all we can to help your brother but you must take great care. I would never do anything to harm Izuna without cause. Please understand. I will help you in any way I can, but I cannot allow him to kill my little brother, or any of my clansmen, can you understand that? I simply cannot. Not even for you."

Madara is nodding quickly before Hashirama even finishes. "I understand completely. Thank you, Hashirama. I will watch over him and keep him under control. Thank you." He looks down to the table, a small, bashfully happy smile on his lips.

Sakura blinks a few times, looking between the two childhood friends. Surely it's not intentional, but Sakura is also beginning to understand why Hashirama is able to sate the rage inside of Madara. Their bond is complex in the fact that they grew up in opposing clans and have spent their entire lives killing the opposite boy's family and yet still came across each other, learned of the other's identity and yet still couldn't break the invisible connection between them. Something always drew them back to one another.

They just couldn't kill one another. At least, not yet.

But their relationship is also very simple. They truly are brother souls intertwined in destiny. The reincarnations of Asura and Indra.

Sakura jolts, feeling a strange tightness to her chest as she stared at the two of them, seeing shadows unlike their own against the wall. The regal forms of the Ostustuki brothers stand behind their reincarnations. Always there, always present. Sakura can't believe she didn't notice it before.

"My sons..." a voice in the back of her head whispers. "I found them... I found them..."


	15. Memory of Konoha

Sakura twists around toward the door, heart pounding her chest. But there was nothing there, no one. She could hear someone talking on the other side of the door, and it sounded like a woman. The voice... it hadn't been in her head but just outside the door. Still, her entire face drained of color. Sakura didn't know who she expected would be there, but no one wasn't it.

Her mind was able to rationalize the woman out there being the one talking, rather than the one in her own head, but there was still a lingering feeling that she couldn't get over. Her skin was crawling, heart pounding, and it felt like her brain was going haywire.

"Sakura-chan?" Hashirama asks, tilting his head to the side. "Are you okay?"

Sakura looks over at them, seeing the shadows of Ashura and Indra no longer behind Hashirama and Madara, before relaxing a bit and nodding her head. "Um, yeah," she says breathlessly, running her hands up and down her arms trying to settle her frayed nerves. "Sorry, I just scared myself is all," she says, attempting to ease their confused and slightly alarmed looks by her actions.

Tobirama's eyebrow quirks up at that. "Um, are you alright?"

"Definitely," Sakura says, rolling her shoulders back and keeping her chin level. "Alright. Now, down to business. Lord Madara," she looks over at the Uchiha patriarch, who nods solemnly for her to continue, "I need you to start getting Lord Izuna out of that room. He's been coupted up in there for too long. He needs fresh air and exercise. Nothing strenuous, just up and walking around. Can you do that? Two or three times a day, take him out for walks."

Madara nods. "Yes, I can do that."

Sakura nods. "Good. Now, is he, um, picky about food at all? Any allergies?"

Madara shakes his head. "He'll eat anything."

Sakura runs her hands up and down her arms, still unable to shake the feeling that wrapped around her earlier. She forces it from her mind for now and focuses on the current issue. "Good. I'll prepare his meals for the next few days until he's of better health. I guarantee it's going to taste like shit, but he'd better eat every bite because it'll make him better."

The corner of Madara's lips curve up a bit, while Tobirama flinches, recalling how good her chakra pills were. Sakura smiles, knowing what that reaction means and not angry about it like she would have been earlier. Tobirama's eyes find hers and smiles faintly, despite obviously being weary about what was going on with Izuna Uchiha. Sakura was too, a little bit, but trusted that whatever would happen, would. She has faith that Madara and Hashirama will be able to take care of whatever it is that Izuna may or may not throw at them.

Sakura just hopes that Shikamaru doesn't murder her before she can do anything helpful. Or potentially very, very harmful. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea from the beginning. There's a reason Sakura has no recollection of the younger brother of Madara Uchiha.

The wound Tobirama inflicted on him must eventually take his life.

 

Shikamaru woke up for the first time since he almost got Sakura brutally shanked by the three founders, two nights later. He was in bad shape, but was getting better, slowly but surely. His body was weak and he could barely hold up a conversation. Sakura managed to get some water and soup into his system before they lost him again to the night.

It was the next morning that Sakura, Madara and Izuna took a walk to the next village. Izuna had been up and moving since Sakura asked it of Madara to get him moving and it has brought the younger Uchiha brother to life. He isn't strong and he can't walk for long, but insisted on going with her as thanks. It was slow going but Sakura already took care of Shikamaru for the morning, so he should be fine until the afternoon. She already told the brothers that she may have to run home depending on how long it takes them.

They didn't seem to mind, Sakura just thinks Izuna wants to get out of the village. Away from his clan and the Senju. To be honest, this is probably the most time he's spent with Madara in months. Sakura can see how happy he is. Leaning heavily on his elder brother, laughing as Madara recalls things from their childhood from what he sees around him. Sakura remains as quiet as she can to let the brothers have their moment.

To be honest, they probably insisted on going on this long walk with her, because if something happens, Sakura would be able to help them. The only other person that would probably be able to heal any issue, would be Hashirama, and that doesn't seem to be anywhere on Izuna's radar.

But Sakura doesn't want conflict. She wants both brothers to be happy, Madara is practically glowing in happiness when he's with his little brother, so she ignores it along side the younger brother.

Sakura's not sure what Madara believes. She's not sure if he truly doesn't believe that Izuna actually hate the Senju or what, but she's decided that it shouldn't be her problem right now. Right now, whatever anger and rage she suspects is boiling in the younger brother's blood, isn't there now. If Izuna is really cursed, then Madara is his cure.

"Koyo would have liked to see it," Madara says softly, holding tightly to Izuna's left arm to keep the younger brother upright. Izuna hums softly in agreement, closing his light, unseeing eyes.

Sakura couldn't help herself, she had to ask, "Who is Koyo?" A pause, then, she adds, "If I may?"

Madara looks over at Sakura, as if he forgot that she was there, before looking forward down the road. "That's my baby brother. He's gone now."

Sakura's heart sank. "I'm sorry, my lord. I didn't know."

Madara shakes his head. "It's okay. Koyo was only six when he died." Sakura's face contorts into a look of horror at that. Madara smiles without mirth. "It's fine that you didn't know about him. It's the type of thing that happens when you take part in a war stretching almost three hundred years."

"The good die young," Izuna says solemnly, opening his eyes slightly. "Him and Senshou were both too young."

"My other little brother," Madara says simply, probably referring to Senshou. "But they weren't the only babies lost in war. That's why, when Hashirama and I became clan leaders, all the babies were taken from the battlefield."

"Yes," Izuna says slowly and Sakura braces herself for something scathing about the Senju clan or Hashirama, but instead, Izuna continues simply, "that was something I could appreciate about the Senju clan leader. He doesn't kill children and he threatens his clan not to either. That's something we can all agree on. Too many little lives lost."

Sakura's shoulders relax a bit. Looks like she's worried for nothing. No, the curse is real, but maybe having some distance from the village, from his clan and the Senju, is calming his anger and soothing the curse.

"I'm sorry about your brothers, Lord Izuna, Lord Madara," Sakura says softly.

"Thank you," Izuna says just as softy, closing his eyes again. "I can see them sometimes, behind my eyelids."

"Me too," Madara says, sucking in a deep breath before letting it out slowly.

There was a long silence that follows. They slowly walk down the road, listening to their own feet crunch the dirt and leave along the path they walk toward the next village over. Sakura wanted to get a few things. She needed clothes for Shikamaru, he's long since sweated through what he has on, and among other things, she also needed to get some actual dog food for Akamaru. Sakura feels bad for just feeding him scraps.

Kiba is going to roast her alive when he finds out.

They made it to the village and were able to do their shopping. Sakura took her time, knowing that this was when Izuna would be getting the most of his rest. It was obvious he was exhausted but adamantly refused Madara's offer to be carried home. He insisted that all he needed was a break and he would be back to full strength and would be able to make it back to the village, no problem. Both Sakura and Madara knew that was a lie, but neither wanted to argue with the annoyed Uchiha and let him do as he liked.

Sakura checked on Izuna just to be sure that he was doing as well as someone who had practically been bed ridden for the better part of three to four months could be, and he was. Shinobi are strong, especially those from clans. He's resilient and able to build back strength quicker than someone like herself would after such a long reprieve from shinobi duties.

Plus, his good mood and fierce determination is also helping his recovery. Thankfully, it appears that Izuna is not easily dissuaded once he's put his mind to something. Which is great in the recovery process but if his anger against the Senju gets as bad as Sakura fears that it might, then it will become something very, very bad. It may be the thin thread that separates a peaceful resolution and the destruction of the Leaf, it's people and it's ideals.

Sakura worries for the future, but doesn't know how to approach it. Shikamaru is definitely going to kill her when he finds out what she's doing. Sakura just can't turn her back on Izuna and Madara. Not when she saw the way Madara was painfully resigned to losing his only last living brother. The pain and betrayal etched on his face and in his eyes is hard to forget. As much as Izuna has been desperately trying to get better, Madara has been using every avenue he can think of to get his brother better. Finally one was shown to him and he was faced with a horrible dilemma.

Izuna or his dream.

Thankfully Hashirama was the one that made the decision for all of them, being forever the voice of reason.

Sakura wanted to help Izuna, but she didn't want anyone walking into this without knowing what could possibly happen. Everything they all worked so hard to do; the village, the alliances, the friendships, Sakura's future, all of it could be destroyed so easily. She wanted them to know about the curse. Maybe if the First knew about it now, understood it... Madara might somehow be saved. The attack of the Ten Tails and Kaguya could all be avoided.

Sakura knows that she shouldn't be changing anything, especially after what Shikamaru told her. Avoid the Uchiha and Senju clans. But she can't just turn a blind eye to the idea that she might be able to save the lives of some of her friends by doing this.

As much as Sakura wants to go back on her word, lie, about being able to help Izuna, make up any sort of lie or reason as to why she can magically no longer do it and face the consequences for that on her own, she can't. She's not afraid of Madara and Izuna hating her. Well, she is, but it's something that she was willing to live through if it meant that all of her loved ones would be alright. There was just something deep inside of her that wouldn't allow her to take back her words. No matter how much she agonized over it, she couldn't bring herself to muster the courage to just tell them that she's too apprehensions to do the job anymore and accept that they will never be able to forgive her.

But she can't.

She can't turn her back on Izuna and Madara. Not after Madara went out of his way to ask her to help him. That meant that he trusted her. Saw her as someone important. Strong enough to save his little brother, the obviously most important person in his life. That, and Sakura is probably the last acceptable chance that they have. No matter how much pain he's in, Izuna is adamant about not receiving help from Hashirama, which is probably for the better. While Sakura's sure his chakra is potent enough to heal the damage, she worries that it won't be done well.

A crazy twist of fate where the word's most powerful medical shinobi absolutely has barely an idea of what he's doing. Imagine, if he had a full, educated, grasp of everything that he was doing? He would be untouchable.

And that's a scary thought. Hashirama Senju hasn't unlocked his true potential.

 

They make it back to the village in good time. Sakura bids the brother's farewell and heads to her home, after promising to stop by with dinner later for Izuna loaded with lots of good stuff to make him better. Her cooking is atrocious, she knows - and loathes it - but even Madara has sworn to eat it as well to support Izuna. Sakura just thinks it's an excuse that if it kills one of them, it'll kill the other. She doesn't miss the look of dread on their faces when she brings them food and the way they murmur their goodbyes to one another before eating. Promising to see each other in a better, "safer" place.

Sakura hates Uchiha.

Why does she have the shittiest luck with them? She's going out of her way to help them, damnmit. A little gratitude and masking their dislike and mistrust of her food would be appreciated. Assholes.

Sakura checked on Izuna again to make sure he was gaining weight back - he was - and that he was getting stronger - he was. It was only a matter of time before he would be healthy enough to be able to be worked on. Sakura had a little bit of a fear about healing him, especially with how bad he was, but thankfully there wouldn't be any cutting him open and risking that lack of proper sterilized environment for an operation. It would just put strain on Izuna's body and if it was too weak to take, it would no doubt give out.

Sakura explained to Madara and Izuna that she wouldn't be able to do much with Izuna's eyes unless she got another pair of Uchiha eyes to put into Izuna's eye sockets. They understood. Well, Madara did. Izuna was sort of horrified at the prospect of having another clansmen's eyes in his head. And that they would probably have to be dead in order for him to do it. It didn't settle well with him and ultimately lead to an argument between the brothers.

Madara insisted that it was for the best. Izuna would be able to see again! The person they took from wouldn't be able to use them anymore anyway! The person sure wouldn't be needing them where they were going!

Izuna was aghast by that, and a bit annoyed. He argued that it wasn't just theirs to take. It belonged to someone else. It is one thing to be given the eyes, but to merely take them from the dead just wasn't a road he was willing to travel down. He would rather relearn how to be a shinobi without sight then defile one of their family members like that.

Madara begrudgingly agreed, but still looked like he wanted to talk more about it - see if they can compromise somehow - but Izuna appeared to be done hearing about the subject for now so Madara dejectedly dropped it and finished his dinner. Sakura left not long after that.

Sakura woke up that night to Shikamaru falling back into bed after having gone to the bathroom by himself for the first time since he was brought to the fledgling Konoha. She managed to give him a bit of water and some bread and crackers to put into his belly before letting him go back to sleep with some medicine that he took with an annoyed grunt.

So far Sakura's saving grace has been that Shikamaru has just been unable to stay awake long enough to talk to Sakura about how fucking stupid she's being trying to save someone she knows for certain doesn't live to see the future. Not for this village.

Sakura made sure Shikamaru was comfortable again before getting Akamaru some fresh water and letting him out again before heading into her own room for the first time in days to sleep. She had Akamaru stay with Shikamaru in case something went wrong, and kept her door open so she could hear them. She hasn't gotten a decent night's sleep in days. She had to sleep, better than she has been recently, especially since she is going to have to shift her focus to making sure Izuna and Shikamaru both get better quickly.

Sakura knows that this is probably a bad idea. She should just take Shikamaru and Akamaru and go, but she can't. This is her home. It is her village. Was it selfish of her to be unable to leave it, despite what her friend said? She's afraid of the answer.

Naruto was never one who always leaned toward the side of caution, so there must be a legit reason for them having to avoid the Uchiha and Senju. It has to be something that is so important that he was the one who said it. It was one thing if it was Lady Tsunade or Kakashi-sensei, but this was Naruto. Sakura's known him since she was eight years old. He may have gotten more mature during the war, but she doubted he changed all that much.

And besides, why was he the one giving the orders? Not that she minded him somehow being a higher position than her. She thought one day he would become her Hokage, and would embrace that day with glee, but unless he was promoted from genin to Hokage right after the war ended, Sakura finds it hard to believe that too much time has passed. Sakura didn't feel older, not really. She thought she was still seventeen, but depending on how much she forgot, she could be older than she thinks she is.

And that's a strange feeling. What if more time than she's willing to admit passed? What could have happened to make her forget the war ending? Obviously they won, but how? What happened? Why are they - and they being Shikamaru, Akamaru, Sakura and whomever else is out there somewhere, waiting for Sakura to find them - in the past? What is going on?

Sakura turns toward the window, watching the trees blow in the breeze illuminated by the moon somewhere above the house. Sakura closes her eyes and turns away, getting comfortable and forcing her mind clear. She needs to get Izuna and Shikamaru better, learn about what happened back home and why they are here from Shikamaru, and then go looking for whomever is still out there.

 

"We need to leave."

Sakura pauses in grounding down the herbs into the mixing bowl to look up at the tired eyes of Shikamaru Nara in the evening of the next day. He was obviously still exhausted from the fever and from being bedridden for days, but he was conscious now and the fever was finally completely gone. Shikamaru lets out a long winded sigh and sits up slowly. Sakura pauses, reaching out toward him to help. Once he's sitting up, bowing over himself a bit, belying how tired he was.

He reaches up and runs his fingers through his brown hair, yanking tiredly at the knots until his fingers can slide through unhindered. Sakura pulls his hair tie off of her wrist and offers it to him. He appears grateful, taking it from her and swiftly tying it back up at the crown of his head before letting his hands drop back onto his lap.

"We need to leave," he says again, looking over at Sakura.

"So you remember that," Sakura says slowly, going back to making his medicine. "You know, in your fevered state, you almost got my ass - and yours - blasted off this planet by our village founders. Oh, and Akamaru, too." The white dog perks up at the sound of his name on the other side of Shikamaru. His tail wags a bit, looking between them, before lowering his head back onto his paws.

Shikamaru sighs. He rolls his shoulders back a bit. He looks over at Sakura and blinks slowly. "Yeah, sorry about that. I remember saying some things. Sorry. I must have been really out of it."

Sakura nods slowly. "Your fever was really high. Don't worry. I was able to give us a believable reason, but now I need the truth. Shikamaru, what happened? Why don't I remember the war ending. Let's start there. What happened at the war? How did we win?"

Shikamaru rubs his forehead, squinting at the grain in the wood flooring in front of him, trying to recall something. "You remember Madara getting his Rinnegan back?"

Vaguely, Sakura did. Flashes of images of the war. Of Madara's head bleeding into a snow white, purple, ringed eyes staring back at her.

"Yeah," Sakura says. "Sort of."

So Shikamaru tells her about the war. About Sasuke coming with the first four Hokage to help assist them in the fight. Madara being betrayed by Black Zetsu. About the Rabbit Goddess Kaguya, Sage of Six Paths. About Asura and Indra. He told her about Team Seven being reuinited and fighting against the Rabbit Goddess and finally beating her and releasing the genjutsu Madara cast upon the world.

Sakura sat in silence, listening to his story. As he talked, Sakura could feel the memories crawling back to the surface. She does remember Sasuke coming back, she remembers the Hokages, she remembers the Rabbit Goddess, crystal clear. Surprisingly - and maybe not so much - she remember the Rabbit Goddess with more clarity than most other things.

Probably because the image of the Rabbit Goddess has been haunting her for a while now. Well, she initially remembered the Rabbit Goddess.

"What happened after the war was over?" Sakura asks. "We all went home, right?"

Shikamaru nods, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "We did. We all finally returned to our villages and forged real peace and alliance treaties with the other Hidden Villages and there was a semblance of peace for a short while." He rubs his forehead again, eyebrows pulling together tightly as if his head was splitting. "And then... and then..."

Sakura's eyes widen in worry. "Oh no. You didn't forget too did you?"

"No," Shikamaru says sourly, glaring at her. "I just..." He rubs his forehead. "Son of a bitch. I... I remember that we were fighting a lot. A new enemy. I remember that we had to come here to the past in order to protect a VIP." His eyebrows pull together tightly. "Damn, why can't I remember...?"

Sakura frowns. "So it's not just me..." She looks at Shikamaru worriedly. "So both of us are having issues with memory... why is that? Could it have been... the fever?"

"I recall some things," Shikamaru says. "I remember that we all came here in order to protect a VIP that would become instrumental in fighting our enemies in the future. I was never told who it was... or if I was... I don't remember - shit."

Sakura raises an eyebrow. "What?"

Shikamaru rubs his forehead for the fifth time in the past ten minutes. "I remember that Lady Tsunade theorieze that the Space-Time ninjutsu that we would use to get here would us here may cause some memory loss."

Sakura groans. "Of course it does." She rolls her eyes. "It would otherwise be very convenient."

Shikamaru glares at her too. "True, but it should only be snippets that are missing. If you can't remember the end of the war and beyond, that means there is definitely something more at wrong. I remember that we were fighting an enemy that we were grossly unprepared for. It was an assault against all of the Hidden Villages in one, precise coordinated strike. We didn't see it coming." Shikamaru rubs his forehead again. "I remember... we were weak, united, and extremely unsuspecting."

Sakura pushes the medicine aside and scoots closer to him. "Who was it, Shikamaru? Who attacked us?" Her jaw clenches, feeling a fire in her belly. So it wasn't on a whim that they were sent back in time. There was someone here that they were trying to protect. She could do that. She could focus her energy on protecting someone. "Who are we suppose to protect?"

Shikamaru groans, pushing the heels of his hands into his eyes. "Shit! Why the hell is this happening? Damn it all, I can't remember." He drops his hands, frustrated.

Sakura forces her curiosity down, reaching out and putting a hand onto his forehead to feel his frustration is warming his body, which is the last thing he needs right now. "It's fine," Sakura says calmly, despite feeling like ripping the world apart for answers. "You need to concentrate on getting better. Once you are, then we can figure out what to do next. Your fever is gone, but you aren't out of the woods yet." She finishes up his medicine and gives it to him to eat.

Shikamaru looks like he wants to keep working out what was going on in that big brain of his, but must have realized that he would be no help to Sakura or their cause if he gets sick again and begrudgingly drinks the concoction, gagging a bit. Sakura glares at him, to which he shrugs and forces down the entire thing before laying down to get some rest.

 

A loud explosion pulls Sakura from being wrist deep in a fellow Leaf ninja. She looks around to see her home burning around her. People were running and screaming away down the street. She could see other Leaf ninja battling off intruders in the village. She does a quick scan around her to make sure no one was sneaking up on her while she was distracted. Everyone else was otherwise preoccupied. She can see Choji towering over the village, bringing his fists down on the buildings and feel the ground rumble beneath her legs.

Sakura looks down at the shinobi beneath her and realizes it's Kotetsu. His face is contorted in pain, a slice nearly splitting his chest in half was bleeding profusely. But his breathing is even and calm, keeping his heart rate down. It's what has kept him alive long enough for her to get to him. Had he began to panic, he'd of been dead.

Izumo is nearby, protecting Sakura and Kotetsu while she worked. She couldn't focus on anything else right now, Kotetsu needed her. She returned her attention to the older man and quickly finished healing his wound. Much to her relief, he would be fine. But he couldn't fight anymore for a while.

She ordered Izumo to get Kotetsu out of there and moved on. There is another loud explosion that rocks the village and off in the distance Sakura sees ink tigers running down the street plowing down every enemy in their paths. Sai appears next to her, worn and tired but thankfully alive and unharmed aide from some scratches and a bloody temple.

"The Hokage has ordered all remaining ninja to head toward the barricade by the tower," he explains. "Headquarters has been overrun."

"Ino?" Sakura asks impulsively, worried about her long time friend and comrade.

"Fine as far as I know," Sai says, rubbing some of the blood away from his face with a grimace. "She, along with Shikamaru have already pulled back. We have to move too. Everyone has to get back there. All the remaining civilians have been accounted for. Let's go, Sakura."

"Not 'Ugly'?" Sakura asks with dry humor, despite he desperate situation they are all in and following after her teammate toward the tower.

Sai's smile is wane and forced. "I thought you hated that name."

"I do," she affirms.

"Then why ask?"

"Just... Trying to look for some normalcy in this hell, I suppose," she says, truthfully.

Sai nods, like he could understand that. Sakura was starting to wonder if he could. He has gotten better at interacting with people, especially his team. There was a long road the former ROOT member needed to walk before he was a real sociable member of society but he was getting there.

"What are we going to do at the tower?" Sakura asks. "Does Shikamaru have an idea for a push forward? Some way to throw off the enemy and take back Konoha?" They kill a few enemies and tell the nearby shine I to head to the tower. They agree and speed off in that direction.

Sai shrugs his shoulders, keeping his eyes forward. "I don't know," he sighs, running a hand through his short black hair, looking tired. "I hope they have some sort of plan, though. I don't know how much more the Leaf can take." His words were said simply but left a foreboding feeling in the pit of Sakura's stomach.

"Is it really that bad?" Sakura asks softly, face twisted into a look of worry.

Sai looks over anther with a dark expression. "It's bad." another explosion sends them flying through the air. Sakura hits a nearby building, knocking the wind out of her. She hits the ground just as hard, rolling onto her side, wheezing in pain. She feels someone lean over her and turns to see a sword coming down onto her head.

Sakura jerks awake, heart pounding, eyes wide, flying around the room. The danger in the dream has passed. Her instincts settling a bit. She was safe. But that didn't feel like a dream. It felt like a memory. A memory of Konoha.


	16. Izuna's Time

The next five days have been dedicated to getting Izuna stronger, Shikamaru healthier, Salma and Aya trained, Hashirama refined all while trying to stay calm. Konoha was under attack. Something may have happened to her home. What... what if there isn't anyone else? What if Shikamaru, Akamaru and herself are the only ones left of her home?

No, that's not right. Shikamaru said that Naruto said that they were all suppose to meet up together and protect some VIP. That means that more people were sent back! More people are out there!

Sakura's decided. Once she finishes healing Izuna, she and Shikamaru are going to go. They'll do it. They'll go, search all over the world if they have to, until they find each and every one of their friends. Until everyone from their time is together, safe and able to accurately depict what exactly they need to be doing. Who they need to protect and from who. Then, and only then, will they be able to finally be able to go home.

"We're ready," Madara says.

Sakura stands up and turns toward to see Izuna, dressed down to just his pants and Madara standing next to him, hands folded in front of himself, but Sakura can see them shaking a bit in nerves. Sakura has made it clear that she can only stay for as long as Shikamaru is recovering. That means that they are on a time crunch right now and have Sakura for only so long. But Sakura won't rush this. She won't put Izuna's life in any more of a risk than he already is.

Izuna's body is thin and pale, but stronger than the last time Sakura saw it. There is a long, nasty scar across his chest from the wound that Tobirama inflicted upon him. The one that almost ended his life. Sakura is amazed he was able to survive it. The medical prowess of these days aren't as up to par as her time and that sort of wound would have been difficult to heal for an average medical shinobi at the hospital she worked at before.

Izuna, though compromised now, is strong and easily regaining the strength he lost all the time he was bedridden.

Sakura walks over to him. "Alright Izuna, hold your arms up for me, parallel to the ground if you can."

Izuna does as Sakura asks, spreading his arms out wide. Madara steps out of the way so that Sakura can freely walk around his little brother without worrying about getting in her way. Sakura inspects Izuna's body closely, taking in all the dips and grooves of his body. She slowly circles him, talking about a minute in doing so. Finally stopping in front of him, Sakura reaches out to touch him. Her finger tips brushing against his stomach.

Izuna gasps lightly, sucking in his gut a bit. As soon as it happened, his pale face turns red and he ducks his head low. "Sorry," he murmurs.

Sakura pulls her hands back immediately, as if burned. Madara shifts closer, nervous. Hashirama, who was back a few feet as to not alert Izuna that he was there, reaches out and puts a hand on Madara's shoulder. A silent, "Calm down," resonating through the touch. Madara's shoulders relax, if only slightly. But his face is still slightly pensive.

"Sorry," Sakura says, green eyes wide. "Are my hands cold? Did I hurt you?"

"No, no," Izuna says, shaking his head. He clears his throat. "I just... well, you just... um, no one so freely touches me, it... it um, shocked me," he mumbles, embarrassed.

Sakura blinks in confusion for a moment before blushing slightly. "Oh, I'm sorry. I suppose I wasn't thinking. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." Sakura hesitates for a moment, looking over at Hashirama and Madara. "Sorry," she says, sort of to all three of them. "It's so natural for me to touch my patients I didn't think about..." the fact that people don't actually do a whole lot of touching of each other's bare skin in this day and age, outside of husband and wife and sometimes even that is very...limited.

Sakura sighs, turning her eyes up to Izuna's unseeing dark gray orbs. "I'm sorry, Izuna-sama. I don't want to make you uncomfortable but I have to do this to get accurate re-"

"No, no," Izuna shakes his head, raising his chin to be level with the ground. "No, Sakura-san, please continue. Forgive my jumpiness."

Sakura stares at him for a moment longer, debating if he was telling the truth or not. If he wasn't he's got one hell of a poker face, because Sakura couldn't see through it. Sakura lets out a slow whoosh of breath before continuing. She does all sorts of checks, walking around his body, touching his sky, feeling his chest expand when he breaths, pressing her ear to his back to listen for fluid or obstruction in the lungs. Anything and everything that could have become an issue during the surgery.

As she worked, with cool indifference, no lingering touches or unnecessary ones, while she explains everything. She tells the three of them - four, once Tobirama showed up, just as quietly as Hashirama did - what she was doing, why she was doing it and what she was suppose to hear, see, feel, etc. Thankfully everyone stayed silent through out the entire thing. If Sakura had to guess, the fact that - as far as Izuna knew Madara - Tobirama and Hashirama kept silent, he was able to trick himself into believing that he is alone. Maybe that makes this easier.

Or Sakura's voice has some kind of lulling quality to it that she wasn't aware of. It doesn't really matter.

Izuna, other than the little jolt the first time she touched him, has remained relaxed throughout the entire rest of the check up. Madara managed to relax too. Once that happened, Hashirama removed his hand - quietly.

Once Sakura is done she takes a respectful step back from Izuna and lets him put his arms down. Madara quickly steps forward and puts a large blue kimono top over his shoulders and ties it off. Then a black haori over top of that with the Uchiha fan on the back.

"Well," Sakura says, putting her hands on her hips, "everything checks out. Come, lets go sit down."

"I'm fine," Izuna says, shaking his head and squinting at the pink haired girl, trying to make out the shapeless blob of bright colors in front of him. "Just tell me what's going on. I don't want to sit down."

"Izuna," Madara says slowly.

Izuna shakes his head again. "No, brother. People only tell you bad news when you sit down. Tell me while I stand." The muscles in his jaw works. For both brother's sake, Sakura's glad Izuna couldn't see well enough to see the horrible look flicker across Madara's face.

"No," Sakura says quickly, "don't misunderstand!" The last thing she needs is for Madara to go postal, thinking that all hope is lost. "There is no bad news here, you guys. I suggested sitting down so that you could rest, Izuna-sama, not because I have bad news. But if you wish to stand, that's fine too, it's your room." And it was, they were standing in the middle of Izuna's plain, almost completely bare room.

Izuna - and Madara - look slightly relieved by her words, but until they hear her diagnosis, there is little else that will ease their nerves. "Please, Sakura-san," Izuna says, his voice respectful, but tight.

Sakura shifts her weight from one foot to the other. "Alright, so by your check up and vitals..." her eyes flicker between the two sets of brothers before stopping on Izuna again and smiling, even though he can't really see it, "I've determined that you'll be strong enough to go through surgery."

Izuna's hands go flying up toward his head, interlacing his fingers before pressing them against the back of his messy dark blue hair. He lets out a long sigh of relief, same as Madara, who steps forward and puts his hands on Izuna's shoulders, gripping them tightly and trying to contain his smile. Madara looks like he's regressed in age by five years. He lays his forehead down against the back of Izuna's right shoulder, the younger boy bringing a hand up to place over his brother.

"That's good," Izuna says, slowly. "You'll be able to fix me right."

"Not your eyes," Sakura says sharply. "That will take a different procedure altogether."

Izuna holds his hand up. "I know, I know."

Madara pulls his hands back and straightens up.

"This procedure," Sakura says, "isn't invasive but it will put strain on your body, which is why I needed you to be strong. But, with your permission, and Madara-sama's as well, I would like to used this as another lesson for Salma and Aya. With my time here now cut short - shorter than I'd like - I would like to give them as much training as I can." Before Sakura could finish, both brothers were already nodding.

"That's fine," Madara says.

"Anything," Izuna says a split second later. Sakura given the impression they would agree to just about anything at this point if it meant that Sakura could perform the surgery.

Sakura laughs, shaking her head. "Good, I'm glad. Thank you. I'm assuming you want this done immediately, right?"

"Yes," Izuna says, "as soon as possible, if you don't mind."

Sakura's hands fall to her side. "Alright, so, what's going to happen now is I'm going to make you one more meal, but this one is going to be smaller, we don't want you to be too full." She smiles thinly at that, noting that both brothers paled in color at the thought of eating another of her meals. "Big babies. You've lived thus far, haven't you? Quit your complaining." Sakura rolls her eyes.

"Sorry," both brother murmur, sounding anything but apologetic.

Sakura sighs. "Anyway, this next batch will make you a little drowsy, but that'll be fore me. The intention is that once I start with this procedure, you'll sleep right through it. Your body will already be relaxed and so hopefully it'll help you when going through the surgery. It won't be the same as anesthetic. It's not designed to knock you out so you may wake up half way through, or not fall asleep at all. It'll relax you, though and that's the point. The reason why I say this..." Sakura turns her attention to Madara.

"Ah," Madara says, then pats Izuna on the shoulder. "You don't mind, do you, brother?"

Izuna cringes and Sakura's shoulders droop, eyebrows pulling together tightly. "Wonderful."

Sakura spreads her arms out wide, looking at them incredulously. "What the hell? Well, screw you two." Sakura lets her hands drop to her sides and glares at the Uchiha brothers.

"My apologies," Madara says, tipping his head a bit respectfully.

"We didn't mean anything by that," Izuna says, also tipping his head a bit.

Sakura rolls her eyes. "I know exactly what you meant, and lucky for you two, I'm not as sensitive about that as I used to be. Or I wouldn't have cared who you were, I'd hit you so hard in the back of the head you'd wouldn't be able to process what happened before you were eating dirt." Sakura grumbles, glaring half-heartedly at the two brothers. Izuna looks mildly surprised while Madara, Tobirama, and Hashirama look horrified.

Sakura stares at them for a moment, wondering if she should make good on her threat, but her rational mind quickly alerted her that would be a fucking terrible ass idea and so she dropped it.

"Whatever," Sakura says, waving her hand around dismissively. "Alright, so we'll plan for the surgery for early evening. So be ready by then, you two. I'll be keeping Salma and Aya with me until then. If you need me, I'll be in the forest with them gathering herbs. Izuna-sama, you stay here and rest, build up your strength for tonight, alright?"

"Yes, ma'am," Izuna says, nodding his head quickly. Madara, too, happy to escape Sakura's wrath. Sakura rolls her eyes and turns away.

"I'll be back tonight. If you have anything you want to do before being bedridden for a few days, then do it now." With that, Skaura waves her hand about her head and opens the door to Izuna's room, leaving it open so that Hashirama and Tobirama can slip out behind her.

"That's it?" Tobirama says, following just a few steps behind Sakura.

She glances over her shoulder at him and hums. "Yes, sir."

Hashirama quickly jumps to Sakura's side, looking a mixture of excited and worried. "Will this procedure be dangerous?"

Sakura shakes her head. "No, not really. All- uh, procedure, yes, that's a better word for it rather than surgery, but um, no. All medical arts have a degree of danger that comes with them but it's all about precautions, steps, people and luck. Anything in the world could go wrong, but right now, no. I don't see there being a foreseeable problem."

"Then why did he have to wait?" Hashirama asks. "Why couldn't you have just done this after you first saw him?"

"Part of the procedure takes Izuna's body having to exert more energy than it has in a long time. I want to make sure he's regained his strength and improved on his health a bit before forcing his body to... basically repair itself."

"What does that mean?" Tobirama asks, stepping up to her other side. "Is there something wrong with Izuna's ability to heal?"

Sakura reaches up and scratches the back of her head, giving a little wave to some of her Uchiha patients she saw a few days ago, as the trio leaves the Uchiha compound. "Um, jeez, I don't know how to explain this." She looks around for a moment before pausing and looking between the two older men. "Okay, when Izuna was hurt his body immediately went to repair the damage. The thing is, the human body is stupid, in sense that it tries to heal everything at once and does a half ass job of it."

She crosses her arms over her chest. "Basically, his body was trying to heal everything at once and ended up doing a pretty bad job of it, since the wounds were extensive. I'll be honest, I'm amazed Izuna-sama is a live."

Hashirama flinches, glancing over at a stoic faced Tobirama.

Sakura smiles thinly and without mirth. "He definitely looks a lot better on the outside than he does on the inside. As he was hurt, his chakra system was damaged and while I would have been able to heal the damage when the wound happened. Modern technique coupled with the natural degradation of his eyes and ability to do regular everyday activities has made his condition a lot more severe than it should have been."

Hashirama's eyebrows raise. "You can fix a chakra network?"

Sakura nods. "It's easy. I could easily teach you how to do it fifteen minutes, it's that simple. Our chakra networks are fragile, and easily disrupted and even damaged, but there is a level of healing ability within our own chakra coils that fixes those small breaks or wounds on the system, so that it can be done on it's own. Unfortunately, the wound that Tobirama-sama inflicted on Izuna-sama was extensive enough that any healing he had going toward his chakra network was put on over-drive. It was spread out too thin and ultimately burned out - forgive the pun. Now it's blown out and is no longer to repair itself.

"Our bodies naturally know how to repair damage done to us - to some extent. But Izuna-sama's body has been so badly damaged and was poorly cared for both by inexperienced or naïve or whatever has cause some of the negligent healing in him already, and his own pride has put his body in a bad way," Sakura says, shaking her head. "Much of this could have been avoided, but, alas, that wasn't the case. Either way, I needed him to be strong because what I'm going to do is feed him some herbs that will push his chakra network into overdrive and basically guide his chakra throughout his entire network and repair it." Sakura opens her mouth, about to add something, but catches herself.

Unfortunately, Tobirama catches the action and tilts his head to the side. "What?" He asks. "You were going to say something." Narrow red eyes are as keen and sharp as Sakura's always seen them. Hashirama tilts his head too, also curiously.

Hashirama and Tobirama are polar opposites. Sakura has been told many times that it's Madara and Hashirama that are opposites and in many ways, that's true, but Sakura sees the two Senju brothers as true polar opposites. Both in appearances and in personalities. They couldn't be more opposite. Hashirama was all dark features; brown hair and eyes and dark, sun tanned skin, while Tobirama is lighter features: white hair, red eyes, pale skin. Hashirama's face is soft, even with some strong features like his nose and chin - and his laugh which is bigger than life itself. And then Tobirama's face is a neat mixture of dainty and strong. His chin - the same as Hashirama's - and jawline are strong but his eyes and overall structure of his face gives it a delicate look.

Hashirama has a very gentle, goofy and excitable personality. He's obviously a child at heart and just overall enjoys being happy and genuinely wants happiness unto others. Tobirama has a very stoic, stern and logical personality. He obviously took lessons as a child to heart and grew up quickly. He's kind, but so stoic that sometimes it's hard to see that and while Hashirama believes in happiness and butterflies and unicorns, Tobirama believes in numbers and actions and things right in front of his eyes.

They're brothers, yet they couldn't be more different.

Still, Sakura is amazed about that.

She shakes her head, forcing the thoughts away. "Sorry, I just..." Sakura sighs. "I didn't want to say anything to Izuna-sama or Madara-sama, but in doing this, healing Izuna-sama's chakra network there is a slim slim chance that it may improve his eyesight. Not a lot, and it may hardly be noticeable, but that's always there. In order to maintain the Mangekyo Sharingan, to stave off blindness for as long as possible is regular visits to a skilled medical ninja, but that is only for a set about of times. Eventually the eyes will seal away to blindness, it's inevitable."

"Unless they get another pair of eyes transferred into their own," Hashirama adds.

Sakura nods. "Yes, sir."

Sakura runs her hands up an down her arms, looking over at the Uchiha compound behind her. She lets out a slow sigh before continuing walking.

"What's the plan for right now, Sakura-chan?" Hashirama asks, following after her again.

"I need to gather the appropriate herbs and make sure they are really good before tonight," Sakura sighs. "I just hope everything I need is around here. I'll be taking the girls out of the village, if that's okay with you guys." Sakura takes a moment to look between the two Senju brothers.

Hashirama glances over at Tobirama and shrugs his shoulders. "I don't see a problem with it. Do you?" Tobirama shakes his head. Hashirama looks over at Sakura and smiles. "Then, that's fine."

Sakura nods, about to keep going when Tobirama's voice gives her pause.

"I'll assist you."

Sakura glances over at him with wide green eyes. "Not that I mind in the slightest, Tobirama-sama, but is there a specific reason?"

Tobirama's narrow red eyes stare locked onto something above Sakura's head. Sakura does a strange half turn to look around, trying to find what he was looking at but couldn't find anything and decided that it was probably fine - whatever it was - if she didn't know what he was looking at. Hashirama's eyebrows are raised toward his hairline, looking down at his little brother.

"Tobi?" Hashirama asks curiously. "Whatcha thinking about?" He wiggles his eyebrows.

"Anything could happen," Tobirama snaps at Hashirama, making the older brother jump and hold his hands up in surrender. "Besides, it couldn't hurt to have someone else out there with you. Better to be safe than sorry." Tobirama sniffs, looking around at anything other than Sakura. The pink haired medical ninja looks over at Hashirama with a raised eyebrow.

Hashirama shrugs. "Sure," he says. "I could come to, if you think we might need it...?"

Tobirama glares at Hashirama. "Actually no, your day is all booked up. You have some meetings to attend to, brother," Tobirama says dryly. He crosses his arms over his chest.

Hashirama wilts like a flower under a hailstorm. He looks over at Tobirama through his long dark eye lashes. He looks like a wounded animal. Tobirama stares back at him, completely unaffected by his older brother's puppy-dog eyes.

"See you tonight, brother," Tobirama says simply and then keeps walking, easily brushing past Sakura toward the Senju part of the village. Sakura looks up at the pouting Senju clan leader and shrugs, giving him a little half smile, before following after the white haired future Second Hokage. Hashirama's entire body wilts more in depression.

At the last possible moment, Hashirama perks up and looks after Tobirama, cupping his hands around his mouth and yelling, "Be good, Tobirama! Don't do anything our dear sweet mother would frown upon in heaven!"

Tobirama's entire body freezes up. Jerkily, he turns his head to glare daggers at Hashirama. He didn't say anything but there was real hatred being directed toward the older Senju brother before he turns away and stomps on down the road. Sakura looks between the two brother's - one laughing hysterically and the other retreating quickly with his head bowed - before shrugging and following after Tobirama.

 

"I don't get what it's suppose to look like," Aya says, walking alongside Salma as they search the forest for the herbs that Sakura asked them to look forward. Sakura walks next to Tobirama, scanning the forest as well.

"These are basic herbs, Aya," Sakura says, pausing to push some weeds aside to see it's not what she's looking for. She moves on.

"I know," Aya sighs, "but everything in this forest is green, sensei! How am I suppose to distinguish them?"

Sakura rolls her eyes. She wipes a bead of sweat off of her forehead before scanning the forest again with her eyes. "Salma, do you remember the other distinguishing feature of the herb other than it being green?"

Salma runs her fingers through her hair to smooth out her glossy brown side ponytail, still looking around for the herb. "Um..." she lifts her head and glances over at Aya. "It's suppose to also have small red dots on it's leaves." She smiles kindly down at the younger girl. "Don't you remember, Aya-chan?"

"I..." Aya squints. "Oh, yeah. But still, Sakura-sensei, how prominent are these red dots? How big?"

Sakura taps her finger to her chin in mocking contemplation. "Small enough to be squint worthy, my dear Aya," Sakura says teasingly. "But with those amazing Uchiha eyes, I'm sure you'll be just fine." Aya playfully glares back at Sakura, who winks at her in return.

They walk in silence for a few minutes, Aya and Salma a good distance ahead of them, still scanning the forest for the herbs. Sakura and Tobirama are walking so close to each other every couple of steps their shoulders will lightly bump, but neither will say anything about it. They are both scanning the forest - Sakura's looking for herbs and Tobirama is looking for anyone who shouldn't be there - but don't say anything to each other.

Sakura can sense that Tobirama is in a sour mood after the little conversation with Hashirama earlier. Sakura's not sure what exactly made Tobirama so mad, but obviously he's not in the mood to talk about it, so Sakura doesn't want to ask, afraid to anger the already annoyed future Second Hokage. Sakura's not sure why he wanted to come with in the first place, but like hell was she going to say no to the idea of a bodyguard in the Second Hokage, no matter how confident she was in her ability to protect both herself and the girls - should they need it - it was still nice to have him there as support.

Sakura digs around in her kunai pouch and pulls out the white ribbon she borrowed from Salma and loops it into her hair, pulling it up into a ponytail. She's able to even pull up her fringe, with the exception of just a couple of strands. Without modern day air conditioning this heat is nearly unbearable. Sakura could deal, she has been for so long, but it has to be hotter in the past or something, because it was never this hard to bare before.

Or, maybe Sakura is losing her touch.

Sakura's expression is a slightly horrified one. That best not be the case. Like hell, after all she's been though, is Sakura Haruno becoming a little bit sensitive about the fucking heat. She'll die first before she acknowledges anything like the heat bothering her.

"Something wrong?" Tobirama asks, pulling Sakura's attention back to him.

Sakura looks up at Tobirama in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Tobirama's narrow red eyes have smooth skin around them. It's strange, this is probably the first time that Sakura's seen such a... gentle look on Tobirama's face. It wasn't gentle like Hashirama's face, but more... more smooth. Like all the mild anxiety and in-depth thinking that was always written on his face was smoothed away for probably the first time Sakura's ever seen it.

It shows the youth on his face. He's still a young man, and although he seems larger than life, it's still easy to sometimes forget that. But he really isn't all that much older than Sakura. Maybe five or six years. At the most. But that's it. At least with Sakura right now in the past with them he's only that much older. In reality he's like... eighty years older, but, well yeah. Semantics.

"You have a strange look on your face," Tobirama says simply. "Are you alright?"

Sakura smiles up at him. "Yes, I'm fine. Just... letting my imagination run away with me. Sorry about that."

"It's fine." Tobirama shrugs his shoulders.

"Oh!" Salma gasps, pulling Sakura away from the future Second Hokage over to the brown haired Senju. She's knelt down in front of a bush, pushing the leaves aside to see a plant half hidden underneath. She tilts her head to the side, curiously. "Um, Sakura-sensei, I think I found it." She looks up at Sakura with bright green eyes, excited for possibly being the one to find the herb.

Sakura speeds up her steps to close the distance between them. She kneels down next to the brown haired girl and looks at the plant, noting the red little dots on the leaves, and smiles over at the slightly older girl.

"Good girl," Sakura says. Salma blushes in embarrassment and her smile is bashful.

"Thank you, sensei," Salma says softly.

Sakura waves for Aya and Tobirama to come close. "Here, you two, come see this. I want to show you how you can tell if these herbs are good or not based on their outward appearance." Then, with all three of them huddled around Sakura, she explains about the plant, why it grows where it does, what exactly it does based on how it's mixed in with other plants, things like that. She moves the plant around, telling them about what they need to look for in order to tell if the plant is any good and if it is, how good.

Once she's done, she picks the plant, stuffs it in the herb sack she got, and moves on, telling them about the next herb they need.

 

Sakura unpacks all the herbs and bowls and mashers, before turning toward Izuna, Madara, Salma and Aya. The two girls look enraptured. They can't wait to be part of this. They've been helping rehabilitate Kaido, but he's all better now, so they've been helping Sakura take care of all the sick and injured within the village, which was more than they thought, but not as much as Sakura did. She's used to a hospital full of people needing attention so having so many open rooms in a small little kinda-hospital. While that is a steady stream of work, it's random and with a wide variety of different things that they came to handle, and learned to do on their own.

When Sakura leaves, they will be able to handle many things. Nothing huge, not like this, but they are becoming competent medical shinobi. Slowly, but surely. Sakura just wished she would have been able to stay and see their entire training through to the end. It makes Sakura kind of sad that she isn't able to follow through with her end of the deal. She wanted to make them amazing medical shinobi, because she knew that they could be. She saw it in them. She knew that they would be great, they just needed the experience.

"So," Sakura says, turning toward them, "here's what's going to happen. We are going to walk through this step by step, I'll explain everything, girls you will be assisting me and if you two have any questions, at any time, just let me know." All four of their heads bob up and down.

Sakura explains what this remedy they are about to brew is going to do. It has a mild healing ability, but what it's primarily going to do is increase his chakra production on an insanely high level. In doing so, the chakra - and it's natural mild ability in healing - will begin to heal the pathways while also filling it with chakra. Sakura will just be overseeing it, making sure that all the damage is healed and done property without the body somehow overcompensating for the sudden physical exertion and forcing his coils to produce chakra at an unbelievable rate.

Izuna and Madara have identical looks of wonder.

"That's it?" Izuna asks, staring unseeingly just over Sakura's left shoulder.

Sakura tilts her head to the side. "Is there something wrong with that?"

"No," Izuna says quickly, him and Madara both shaking their heads in unison. Izuna does a little half look in Madara's direction before continuing, "I... I guess I just thought that... well, it would be a little bit more complex than that."

Sakura shakes her head. "No, our part is easy. Your part is going to be just a little bit harder. How do you feel?"

Izuna smiles. "I feel good. Thank you. I..." he lets out a long whoosh of breath. "I'm ready."

Sakura smiles back at him, even if he couldn't really see it. Even though his voice was soft and airy, Sakura could feel the strength beneath it. He was truly ready for it. He's been ready for a long time.

"Alright," Sakura says, looking between the two Uchiha brothers and her two students with bright, keen green eyes, "let's get started."


	17. Tobirama's Seal of Apology

The next few hours were especially stressful for Madara. It was extremely hard for him to sit there and watch Izuna writhe in pain on the floor in the middle of his room, sweating profusely as his body is forced to heal itself. Sakura knew the damage was bad but underestimated just how hard it would be for Izuna to battle through it. His entire body started to tremble almost immediately after she began to guide his chakra through his system, forcing it to heal the pathways. His forehead and entire upper half of his body broke out into a sweat soon afterward.

Madara somehow managed to stay sitting in the corner, watching his brother with his hands curled into fists on his thighs with this unreadable look on his face with a tightness around his mouth that betrayed his worry. Sakura could understand his anxiousness to a degree. She was an only child but if she had three younger siblings, two of which were taken away too soon because of war and the last is sitting on a thin line yoyoing with life and death, being tugged one way or the other for however long he's been hurt... Sakura can understand where that would fray someone's nerves.

But thankfully, Madara doesn't move and stays calm for the most part. Hashirama snuck into the room at some point and sat at Madara's side. Their shoulders brushed every time Izuna whimpered in pain or shutter. With Hashirama there, Sakura knew that Madara would be okay. Hashirama was a calming element to the fiery black haired Uchiha Patriarch.

With both of their clan leaders in the room, Aya and Salma were performing perfectly, showing off their skills. They were good, both were very talented medical ninja, Sakura was very proud of them, and they wanted their clan leaders to see how much their hard work was paying off. Sakura sits on Izuna's left while Aya and Salma sat on his right, Madara and Hashirama sat in the corner over Salma's left shoulder.

"Sakura-sensei," Salma says softly, raising her eyes to Sakura, her hand pressing lightly against Izuna's forehead, "Izuna-sama is running a fever..."

Madara twitches.

"He's okay," Sakura says. "His body is just working harder than it has in a long time." Salma nods slowly. Sakura looks over at Aya, whose glowing green hands hover over Izuna's stomach. "Aya, let's see if you've been practicing your herbology. Make me something that can bring down Izuna-sama's fever."

Aya nods, jumping right to that. Sakura turns back to Izuna and watches him closely, keeping her eyes on him. Once Aya was done, Sakura leans over Izuna and lightly shakes his shoulder. He doesn't respond right away, so she shakes him a little bit harder and his eyes open slightly, eyes rolling around in his head.

"Izuna-sama," Sakura says softly, leaning over him. "Izuna-sama, can you speak to me? Are you awake?" Izuna mumbles something incoherently. "I'm going to give you some medicine so we need to sit you up alright. Swallow it for me, alright?"

Izuna mumbles something, nodding his head slowly before his eyes seal shut again. Salma helps Sakura sit Izuna up so that Aya can feed him the medicine. He chokes on the first little bit, having it dribble down the side of his mouth, but it wakes him up enough for him to drink the rest of the concoction. Once it's all gone, Sakura and Salma lower him back onto the covers and clean him up. Salma picks up the bowl of water they've been using to dab up his sweat and stands.

"I'm going to go and get some fresh water, Sakura-sensei."

Sakura smiles up at her. "Good, thanks Salma."

The brown haired Senju woman blushes and nods, walking over to the door, sliding it open, stepping out, before closing it again behind her. Aya scoots closer to Izuna's head and looks up at Sakura with wide black eyes.

"Sakura-sensei..?"

Sakura looks up at her. "Yes, Aya?"

"Will this really fix him? I mean, I know you said it wouldn't fix his eyes, but I mean, I'm watching it happen and I... I just can't believe it's that simple." Her black eyes are huge.

Sakura smiles thinly at her. "It's easy for us, we aren't really doing anything. But trust me, this isn't feeling very good to him. Or easy." Sakura's eyes lower to the sweating younger brother of the Uchiha clan leader. Sakura smiles faintly before looking back up at Aya. "But he's strong. I wouldn't have told him he could do this if I didn't think that he could. He's almost done."

Aya looks relieved. "Really? And then he'll be okay?"

Sakura nods. "So long as he keeps up the good work he's been doing thus far, then I'm sure he'll be fine."

The door opens and Salma steps back in with a bowl of fresh water. She closes the door behind herself with her foot somehow managing to balance the water in her hands without tripping and falling. She walks over to the trio and lowers to the floor next to Izuna. She lays the bowl down and grabs the rag she had discarded earlier and places it into the water before wringing it out and dabbing his forehead lightly.

As Sakura predicted, Izuna was able to make it through the procedure. He was shaking and sweating like crazy, so it took longer than anticipated to finally stabilize him enough to where he can be left alone before Sakura took a moment to talk to the girls, congratulate them on their good jobs and tell them how the next few days are going to go before she sent them home to rest.

"So, he's going to be okay..?" Madara asks softly after the girls were gone. Tobirama slips into the room quietly, lowering himself onto his legs next to Hashirama. He must have seen the girl's leave and figured he could be in on this too now.

Sakura runs her glowing green hand over his body for a few moments, seeing that his network was moving smoothly, there wasn't any snags. She looks up and smiles at the two clan leaders. "He'll be okay. Rehabilitation will be a little difficult, but it's nothing he can't handle. Thankfully, it's as simply as meditating to build up his chakra again, some was lost since he hasn't used it in a while, and just move the chakra around in his system. Once he move his chakra around with ease like he used to, then he can start doing simple things like leaf twirling and then tree walking, water walking all the way up to his advance jutsu."

Hashirama is shaking his head. "Is it really that simple?"

Sakura nods. "Yes sir. It's just a matter of not letting him jump the gun. So long as he can do it with ease, he can move. If there is even a slight difficulty, then he's just not ready yet. I wish I could stay and oversee it, but I just don't have that luxury. You know your little brother, Madara-sama, trust your instincts."

Madara nods, looking down at Izuna like he's the worlds most beautiful creature. It's like everything else has fallen away to Madara. It's easy to see that Izuna is single-handedly the most important person in the Uchiha Patriarch's life. They heal each other.

"Thank you," Madara says softly, staring down at Izuna. "Thank you so much, Sakura. I can never repay you for what you've done."

"Sure you can," Sakura says, smiling at the Uchiha clan leader. His black eyes flicker up to her. "You can do that by continuing to believe in the will of fire. By staying by Hashirama-sama's side. Ever since we talked, I've been thinking about how best to help Izuna deal with his curse - whether you want to believe it or not - and have just now come to the conclusion. At least, what I can do."

"And that is?" Madara asks.

"By staying positive." It was such a simple thing to say. Hashirama and Madara appear confused by it and Tobirama's head tilts to the side slightly. But Sakura just smiles more. "It's called the curse of hatred. So, if you stay positive, and keep the atmosphere around him positive, maybe that will help him overcome it. I've heard that Uchiha have overcome the curse before, but I can imagine that it is pretty hard to do. Alone, at least."

Sakura takes a moment to glance down at Izuna again. She pulls the covers that had settled around his waist higher up. Even though he was sweating profusely before, now that it's drying, his body is cooling down. The last thing he needs is to get sick this soon after healing.

"I was told, a long time ago, that Uchiha couldn't love," Sakura says, looking back up at Madara. The man looks insulted. Sakura quickly continues on, lest the meaning of words be lost on the Uchiha Patriarch, "I thought it was preposterous. Everyone can love! It was such a strange thing for someone to have said. But the only Uchiha I knew, was Sasuke. Sasuke was full of so much hate and anger, I began to wonder, after so long of being ignored and treated like a burden, if maybe that was true."

Sakura lets out a little laugh that lacked any mirth. She shakes her head, looking down at the wooden floor for a moment as if lost in thought.

"Sakura-chan?" Hashirama calls out to her, eyebrows pulled together slightly.

Sakura raises her eyes back to the three men. "I guess at some point I selfishly wondered if something was wrong with Sasuke because I didn't want the problem to be with me. That I really was annoying and a burden, even unloveable. But I was okay with it, so long as it was Sasuke. My mother wanted me to be with Sasuke so badly, I think that I misconstrued what love should have been. I had a crush on him when we were kids because that was what all the other girls had on him and it was what my mother wanted. But at some point, I think I did start to love him, but..." Sakura let out a little sigh. "Sasuke could never be mine."

There is a moment where Sakura closes her eyes, before continuing, "I couldn't be what Sasuke needed to start healing. He was being devoured by his own hatred and I just wasn't what he needed. Sasuke was being consumed by his hatred and the only person who could free him was..." Sakura's lips curl upward as her eyes lift to Madara, "was his brother."

The anger on Madara's face melts off. "His brother..."

Sakura nods. "The point of this story wasn't to make it seem like the Uchiha are heartless or loveless, but in fact the opposite. You wouldn't know that until I get to the point, I suppose. I think I understand Sasuke a little bit more now that we've finally put some real distance between us. I spent so much of my life following at his heels, then at a distance and then he was so far away I could barely see him over the horizon. Now that I'm here, with you guys, with people who need me, not because of who I am friends with or teammates with, or trained by, but for me, I think that I've finally begun to understand why Sasuke didn't need me. Not like the way I wanted him. And it's just that.

"Sasuke needed someone who would love him unconditionally. Someone who would take the good with the bad and still think that there was no way that he wasn't worth saving. I just... couldn't be that person to Sasuke, but Naruto could. Not for a single second, no matter what Sasuke did, Naruto never gave up on him. Never stopped believing that Sasuke couldn't be saved. Naruto loved Sasuke in the only way that the Curse of Hatred couldn't fend off. Unconditionally. Completely and purely, unconditionally.

"That's why I bring this up now," Sakura says, looking between the three men, "I believe that this is what the Will of Fire is all about. Naruto and Sasuke aren't blood brothers, but they couldn't be closer. The same thing I saw in Sasuke and Naruto, is the same thing I see in you two, Hashirama-sama and Madara-sama." Sakura smiles at the two friends.

Hashirama and Madara glances at one another, with raised eyebrows. Hashirama smiles at Madara stares back at him blandly for a moment, before he smiles back a bit.

"Sasuke had that in Naruto, Madara-sama has that in Hashirama-sama, now it's time for that to be transferred to Izuna-sama," Sakura says. "It's what saved Sasuke, what could save Madara-sama, should he ever need it, and Izuna-sama right now. And besides, who doesn't like the idea of having someone in their corner unconditionally?" Sakura laughs, pushing to her feet. "I know Izuna-sama will be fine with a big brother like you, Madara-sama, in his corner. I think everything will be okay."

"Thank you for that," Hashirama says. "I think I understand what you are trying to say."

Sakura laughs, "Good, I'm glad it didn't get lost somewhere in between the part where I felt a little sorry for myself and the actual conclusion to the story." Sakura rolls her ankles around a bit, letting them crack and relieve the pressure there. "My point is, I don't think you need to change. I think so long as you stay positive and make it clear that you want this to work, I think it really will. And with that, I've said my peace. Gentlemen, this is where I leave you. I need to head on home and start packing."

"Wait, so soon?" Hashirama asks, jumping to his feet. He pauses a moment, looking down at Izuna, before gesturing toward the door. He follows Sakura outside, Tobirama and Madara right behind him. "I mean, when are you leaving?"

"Two days," Sakura says, crossing her arms over her arms. "Shikamaru is finally up and about, and is looking for supplies outside of the village with Akamaru. He knew I'd be out all day so he's taking the time to get his bearings and get some supplies. That's just how he is. I've got time if you guys need to talk to me about something."

"It's nothing important," Hashirama says slowly, glancing over his shoulder at the two other founders. He turns to look back over at Sakura. "I guess I just wanted to thank you for everything that you've done for us. You've given us a lot of good insight and have helped us out a lot more than I would have expected from a stranger. So, thank you, Sakura-chan, from the bottom of my heart. I believe I speak for all of us when I say this, your help is indispensable."

Sakura smiles up at him, then bows low at the waist. "Thank you all as well. I think I've grown a lot these last few months just because of you. You've all helped me better understand myself, my world as a shinobi, my friends and even my own nindo. So, thank you all as well." Sakura straightens up and looks up at the smiling face of Hashirama, the slowly nodding face of Madara, soft as a feather, and Tobirama, who's face is averted away. "I'm going to miss you guys," Sakura admits, her voice catching slightly in her throat.

"Oh, Sakura-chan," Hashirama steps forward and wraps his arms around her shoulders, pulling her close for a hug, "you are too sweet! We are going to miss you too! And this isn't goodbye. You are always welcome here. Our village will forever be a home to you!"

Sakura feels tears prick at her eyes as she hugs the tall brown haired man back. "You have no idea how much that means to me," Sakura says, squeezing her arms tightly. "Thank you."

Sakura pulls back and quickly wipes her tears away, smiling up at Hashirama.

"You're right," Hashirama says, laying two heavy hands onto Sakura's shoulders. "I don't know what the future has in store for us, but just know that we will be okay. We will find a way to preserver. We will be strong, Sakura-chan, I promise you that. Our home will be fine. And so will we."

Sakura nods, looking over at Madara and Tobirama, who was now looking down at her again. "I believe it," Sakura says. "I think you guys will be great. I think this village will definitely thrive."

 

Sakura is folding up the last of her poor collection of clothes and storing them in a scroll when a knock at her front door pulled her attention away. Sakura immediately wondered if it was Shikamaru. She told him he could come right in when he returned but she wondered if he would disregard what she said since technically for the next forty-eight-ish hours, this was still her home.

Sakura exits her room and walks over to the front door, opening it up. "Shikamaru, I told you that you could just come righ-oh! Tobirama-sama?" Sakura blinks in surprise, opening the door all the way. "Sorry about that, I thought you were Shikamaru. What can I do for you?"

Tobirama, dressed down to a simple short blue yukata and pants with a haori over it, tips his head slightly in greeting. "I apologize for coming without any notice. Is now a bad time?"

Sakura shakes her head. "Not at all," she says as she steps aside. "Come on in."

Tobirama tips his head again, stepping inside, muttering, "pardon the intrusion," as he walks past her, easily slipping off his shoes.

"Would you like some tea?" Sakura asks, following him over to the table.

"Ah," Tobirama says, sitting down neatly. "I'm imposing on you. There is no need."

Sakura waves his words away. "No, it's fine. Besides, it's less that we will have to carry on our trip. It'll just be a few minutes." Tobirama nods his head, allowing her to do as she wished. Sakura quickly makes the tea, stopping only to ask if herbal tea was okay with Tobirama, which it was, so once she's done with that, she hands Tobirama his cup and sits down across from him at the table.

They take a moment to sip their tea, looking around the room for a moment at anything other than each other. Sakura's living room/kitchen is pretty bare at this point - not like it was filled to the brim with stuff to begin with, but it was more empty than the last time he was here - and it really makes it feel like Sakura's time here is limited. She's packing up her meager belongings and she'll be out of their lives as quickly and unexpectedly as she entered them.

"Is there something that I can help you with, Tobirama-sama?" Sakura asks after a pregnant silence filled only with her looking around her bare kitchen/living room, and then watching the future Second Hokage doing the same. Her words draw his intense red eyes back to her.

"First off," Tobirama says, laying the cup down on the table and off to the side a bit, "I would like to apologize for showing up at your home so late at night uninvited and unsuspecting."

Sakura waves her hand around, dismissing his words. She didn't really mind. She knew it was against social norms for this time and had to wonder why Tobirama was the one that was doing this. He seemed to be one of the most stringent rule keepers that she's ever seen, for him to be the one to break them, it made this entire thing very odd to Sakura.

A single man showing up at a single woman's home unannounced at such an hour like this - while it's technically not that late, it's starting to get late and back in this time, that is late - could be seen as something inappropriate. Could... could this be the beginning of such rumors about the Second Hokage being a player? Could he be the type of man that would go to woman's homes late and night? Sakura never suspected that he would be like that, and even now it sounds strange to her, but he is here now. In her home. Alone. And it's getting dark out. And he is a healthy, grown man.

A scary, unknown part of Sakura, wondered if Tobirama knew how this looked and came anyway. That he figured Sakura would understand what him being here would mean and that they would... they would...

Sakura's entire face is lit up in embarrassment, she quickly grabs her cup and brings it to her face, hoping that it'll hide the furious blush appearing on her face.

This entire thing is crazy! He's the current heir to a prominent clan - the Senju - while Hashirama currently has no children, and he's a legendary warrior who probably has to beat women off with the Raijin to have a moment to breath. There is no way he would be interested in someone like Sakura. Especially considering the fact that not only did he think that she was a boy at one point, but he also thought she was a twelve year old girl at another. Obviously she wasn't someone that he saw as mature or womanly. Why the hell is she getting all embarrassed?

Get your head out of the gutter, girl!

"It's okay," Sakura says, now depressed by her own thoughts.

Tobirama doesn't appear to notice the shift in her demeanor, and if he does he doesn't bring attention to it. "I know that you are going to be leaving in a few days and I know that you're probably busy packing, but I figured I'd best get this out the way now so that neither of us have to worry about it later."

Sakura blinks in surprise, pulling herself from her depression to lay her cup down on the table in front of her. "Get what out of the way?"

"The seal I crafted for you. I told you during the festival that I would give it to you at the end of it, but we were... sidetracked after that and it skipped my mind, until today actually." Tobirama crosses his legs in front of him and looks at Sakura with large red eyes, illuminated by the many candles Sakura has lit around the house. The light dances off his handsome face, showing off his strong nose and chin, casting dark shadows on his pale skin and hair.

Sakura tilts her head. "Oh, wow, I completely forgot about the seal in all the excitement. I'm glad you remembered. I would have felt bad for having made you make that for me and then never getting it."

"You're wrong," Tobirama says, shaking his head. Sakura's jaw snaps shut, wondering what he could mean by that. "You're wrong, Sakura. You didn't make me do anything. I made that seal for you because it was interesting to me," he says flatly, staring at her. Sakura blinks in surprise, wondering why he had to say it like that. It wasn't like she was trying to insinuate anything by her words. He didn't have to be mean about it.

"I..." Tobirama hesitates, probably seeing the hurt flicker across Sakura's face. He looks away, down at the candle next to him. "I didn't mean it like that. I didn't do this because you made me. I... I wanted to do it. I wanted to do it because the subject interests me and it was a chance to try something I hadn't thought of doing. And... And it was because you asked me. You could have asked Hashirama, but you asked me. Once you learned that both of us could have helped you, you... you still chose me."

Sakura blinks a few times in confusion. She didn't see what was such the big deal about it. Tobirama was already helping her, sure, she forgot about Hashirama being skilled in it as well, but she was already getting help from someone she knew would be able to really help her. Why would she then go behind his back to ask Hashirama for help if she was already getting it from Tobirama?

A thought occurred to her. "Tobirama-sama," Sakura asks softly, "has someone done that to you before? Asked you about something, only to go and ask Hashirama-sama to help instead?"

At first, Tobirama said nothing, but the way his eyes locked onto her, Sakura knew that it was true. And probably more than just once. Probably a lot more. It seemed like there was very little Hashirama couldn't magically do. It must be hard living in the shadow of a prodigal older brother, especially one as likable as Hashirama.

"Well, I knew you could do it," Sakura says, smiling kindly at the white haired man. "If anyone could give me a top notch seal to help me out, I knew you were perfect for the job. Going to Hashirama-sama didn't even cross my mind. I'm sorry that people have done that to you."

Could this attribute to the reason why Tobirama created so many legendary jutsu that he then just hid away in the scroll of sealing? Not only to prove to himself that he's talented, but to prove it to future generations?

Sakura didn't know, but had to wonder.

"Thank you," Tobirama says, red eyes flickering down for a moment before landing level on her face. Any sign of the tender moment they shared is gone from his face. "Now, would you like me to place the seals before it gets too late?"

Sakura nods, holding her right hand out for him to take. His large hands are easily able to wrap around her small wrist as he pours chakra into the back of her wrist, using his chakra to basically lay the blueprint into her skin, when he pulls his right hand off of the top of her wrist, she can see the blue three circle seal with the dot in the center burned into her skin.

Sakura looks at it in amazement as she offers her other hand to him. Tobirama does the same for the other wrist. Once he's done with that, Sakura grabs one of the candles so that Tobirama can see and moves over to his side of the table and shyly offers him her right leg.

There is a slight pause. Sakura was wearing her regular shinobi attire and for a moment, the pink haired medic wondered if maybe she should grab a blanket or something to cover her legs, less this entire thing suddenly make him uncomfortable, but he takes her leg before she can decide, first delicately, like she was somehow very fragile.

His strong, callused fingers ran across the smooth, but strong muscles on her calf before landing on her ankle, cupping it in his hands. His eyes were lowered to his hands and her ankle, thankfully, not noticing her blush. Sakura's been touched by men plenty of times, but there is just something different about this. Something different about this unbelievably powerful man, touching her as if she was a snowflake. Capable of disappearing in a moments notice with just the heat of his body.

Which was hot. Like, really hot. Sakura didn't think that it was that cold out, but her skin felt like ice under his hot hands. Was his hands that hot throughout this entire thing? Why hadn't she noticed earlier?

Once the seal was done on that leg, he moved to the other one, this time, when he picked up her foot and encompassed her ankle with his hands, her skin tingled, creating gooseflesh up and down her leg. At first, Sakura thanked her lucky stars that he didn't notice, but then it seemed like he did, because he lifted her foot a bit higher to see it in the dim light before red eyes flew to her face. Sakura blushes deeply and looks away, embarrassed by her body's natural reaction.

Thankfully, Tobirama doesn't say anything or keep his eyes on her. He just looks back down at her foot and continued to push his chakra into her ankle until the seal was formed on the skin.

Once he was done with that one, Sakura thankfully was able to turn away from him and tilt her head down, pulling her hair over her shoulders so that he would have access to the back of her neck. Her face was beat red, but thankfully hidden from his intense gaze, as he scoots closer. The heat of his body is at her breath and Sakura realized that she wasn't breathing when his fingers touch the back of her neck, softly.

It is one of the most compromising positions that a shinobi can be in. She is very vulnerable like this. He could easily stab her in the back, choke her out or even break her neck in this position, least of all knock her out by having a perfect view of the pressure point located on the neck. It was a sign of great trust that he must have recognized, because once his fingers land on her skin, they stay, not for a moment leaving her to wonder where they are.

His left hand settles on the crook between her neck and shoulder, pushing her shirt collar down a bit. He uses the thumb on his other hand to push some stubborn strands of her hair out of the way so that he has clean access to the back of her neck. Sakura brings her chin to her chest, giving him a bit more room before his palm lands there and the chakra swims around the top of her vertebrae.

Once he's done, his chakra pulls back but his hands remain.

After a moment, Sakura lifts her chin a bit and turns it to the side, trying to see the man behind her but is unable. "Tobirama-sama?"

"I'm sorry about what I said about your village," Tobirama says suddenly.

Sakura's eyebrows pull together in confusion. "I know, you already apologized."

"I know," Tobirama sighs, probably finding confidence in the fact that she couldn't see him. "I know I did, it just... didn't feel as sincere as I hoped that it would. I'd been meaning to apologize again but never found the proper time. Now you're leaving and my chances are slipping away. I just wanted to explain it while I still have the chance."

"Okay..." Sakura says slowly. "I'm listening."

"I told you that I said those things because I was embarrassed at being caught in a compromising position. While true, that wasn't the entire reason. I..." he hesitates. Sakura wonders if he's going to back out of his confession.

"You don't have to explain," Sakura says slowly, "I understand. You don't have to do this."

"No," Tobirama says stubbornly, "I must. I am no coward." Sakura didn't say he was, but she'll just let him talk if he wants to. "I..." he sighs. "I let you get away with a lot."

His words shock her. What the hell did he mean by that?

"Excuse me?" She says, voice flat.

"No, it's not you," Tobirama amends slowly. "It's me. There is much about you, your past, your actions, that I wouldn't just let fly like I have. I would have analyzed you much more thoroughly then I have before letting you a thousand meters from my family. I wouldn't have let you move an inch from that meeting room before I knew every little detail of your life down to the very last conversation you had with someone from your village. I would have been much more thorough then I was. I had every intent to, but Hashirama was letting you do what you wanted, giving you the benefit of the doubt."

A sigh. "I was able to watch you, and you began helping our people, as you promised. I was weary of you, but you didn't falter once. You stayed true to your word, you showed us things about ourselves, our worlds, things about my own mother that I never thought about. You... wormed your way into our lives past the protective armor I thought I erected around it. A part of that was my stupid brother's fault, but I still let it happen.

"When we saw into your memory and things just didn't seem to add up, I remembered that I should have been more strict, that I should have learned everything about you. I should have been more careful. It was like in that moment, everything that we didn't know - that I didn't know - slapped me in the face. It was a painful reminder of how lax I was. I guess I was just so mad at myself I took it out on you. It's not your fault that I was so lax, and it's not just you I had trouble trusting, it's everyone. It's just how I am, how I'm wired. So, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what I said. I didn't mean it." Then there was silence. Sakura had to wonder if the Second Hokage ever spoke that much before in a single sitting before.

For a moment, Sakura wanted to open up a discussion, ask him why she was somehow different to him. Ask if he could explain it in a way that she could understand, but then she realized why he didn't tell her face to face. This isn't something that he would have done easily. This had to be really embarrassing for him, to both apologize and admit that he might be a bit neurotic when it comes to family - not that that's wrong. He's just being protective - but he did, because he thought enough of her to bare with the embarrassment.

So instead of asking the questions that burned in her gut, Sakura stands up slowly, letting her hair slip back over her shoulders before turning around and bending at the waist until she was eye level with the future Second Hokage, laying a hand onto his soft white hair. She smiles softly, hoping the forgiveness shined in her eyes as she stared at him, his cheeks red in embarrassment.

Instead of verbally accepting his apology, she says, "Thank you for the seal, Tobirama-sama. I appreciate it." His narrow red eyes widen slightly before softening, lowering to the wood floor.

"You are welcome, Sakura. Anytime."


	18. Goodbye

Sakura smiles down at Tobirama, keenly aware that her fingers were intertwined in his feathery soft white tresses. They were so soft and wonderfully smooth against her skin, she almost wanted to just run all of her fingers through those soft hairs but she knew that that would be awkward and she's not sure if she knew how to explain that but before she was able to pull her hand away, she felt a presence right next to her. Someone was there now that wasn't there a moment ago. Sakura realized it a split second after Tobirama.

By the time she noticed, he was already moving. He summoned the Raijin to him and struck out, his blade clashing with another blade. The clang filled the empty air and it took Sakura a moment to realize that Tobirama had half stepped between Sakura and the new person.

"Who are you?" Tobirama asks as Sakura straightens up, moving to step around the man to see who had broken into her home. Who managed to sneak up on one of the most powerful sensors in the world.

Sakura's eyes widen in surprise. The blade blocking the legendary Raijin, is none other than a short, cut blade. The man holding it has a blank expression on his face, before his dark eyes flicker over to Sakura and a smile crosses over his lips.

"Hi, Ugly."

"Sai!" Sakura gasps, eyes wide. "H-How? What? How in the world did you get here?"

Sai closes his eyes and gives his broad, fake smile with a touch of genuine feelings lurking under the surface. He's getting better at showing, and even feeling, emotions but this is a complete stranger - in theory - and so he's very protective, especially of his emotions, which are still delicate and raw, Sakura can see. There is something about Sai, though, that is different.

He seems lighter, calmer, more... emotional.

Sai is healing.

"Hey, Ugly," Sai says, making Sakura blanch at the nickname she thought they got over, "why don't you call him off, hm?"

Sakura blinks a few times before putting a hand on Tobirama's shoulder. "It's... um, okay, Tobirama-sama. He's a friend of mine." Tobirama looks over at her from over his shoulder with a skeptical frown on his lips.

"He calls you 'Ugly'," Tobirama says flatly.

"Out of love," Sai says, still smiling. Tobirama glares at him, obviously unimpressed, but there is something about his posture that betrays his unease by Sai. "Isn't that right, Sakura-chan? We're friends, yeah?"

Sakura sighs. "Yes, Sai. Don't worry, Tobirama-sama, he's a friend. A super rude one but a friend nonetheless." She pats his arm a little to calm him down. Tobirama relaxes slowly, pulling his arm back but not sending the Raijin away, just yet.

Sai easily sheathes his half sword onto his back once more. "You must be mad that I was able to get in here, huh?" Sai says, smiling at Tobirama. "Don't worry, there is nothing wrong with you, Lord Tobirama, I'm trained to hide from powerful sensors."

"Sai!" Sakura snaps, reaching over and grabbing his cheek and pinching it tightly between her thumb and pointer finger. He laughs a bit through the pain, pale white cheek already turning red from the harsh treatment. "Show an ounce of respect, would you?"

"My apologies," Sai says, sounding anything but. There is a moment of silence before the door opens and Shikamaru walks in. He looks around at the scene in front of him and letting out a long winded sigh.

"You literally exhaust me," Shikamaru says, pushing his palm into his forehead and rubbing the skin irritably.

"Who?" Sakura asks, glaring at him.

"Me, or her?" Sai asks, smiling over at the shirker.

"Take your pick," Shikamaru sighs, letting his hand drop before looking at Sakura and gesturing toward Sai. "Look what I scrapped off the side of the road on my way back."

"A part of me wishes you would have left it there," Sakura mutters, shaking her head. Sakura runs her hands through her hair for a moment before turning to Tobirama and smiles wanly. "Thank you, Tobirama-sama, for the seals. I appreciate it. Can I talk with you tomorrow?"

Tobirama looks hesitant, eyes flickering between Shikamaru and Sai. He hasn't actually gotten to speak to Shikamaru yet, since the shirker arrived and Said was someone completely new. Sakura immediately understood what the issue was. Tobirama admitted that he was mistrusting by nature and Sakura, Shikamaru and now Sai are three big unknowns that he still has yet to work out and he's being asked to leave them alone to talk.

Sakura doesn't know what to say. They have just reached an understanding, Sakura and Tobirama, only for it to be muddled up now. Sakura doesn't know what to do to make him feel better.

It makes Sakura feel like shit. Her stomach falls to her feet at the look on his face and she can feel her anxiety peak a bit. She doesn't want to make him worried. She doesn't want him to question her or her intentions. He doesn't know this, but she is loyal to the Hidden Leaf, even now, when it's not the Hidden Leaf. And there is a bond he doesn't know about that guarantees her loyalty to the Senju clan.

Her mentor is the First's granddaughter and the heiress, clan leader and last living member of the Senju clan. Tsunade Senju.

Tobirama didn't know that, and Sakura would have been in awe if he did. But after everything she's done and all that they've been through, Sakura didn't want all of it go up in flames because Sai didn't know how to be a real boy and was pushing the future Second Hokage's buttons. Kami, she wanted to kick the shit out of him right now.

While she was over-joyed to have her teammate back into her life - that means that he's safe and sound - but there is something odd going on with him. Maybe it's because Sai is still adjusting with emotions and it's left him feeling a bit rebellious, but thus far, his interaction with Tobirama has been anything but respectful. And while Sai wasn't a respectful person, he was still great at faking at in front of those that mattered.

But not here. Not to the Second Hokage. Why?

Sakura eyes her teammate suspiciously, deciding that she would grill him about it at a better time.

"I'm sorry," Sakura says, reaching out to slowly grab his sleeve, worried she might rattle the lion's cage without meaning to. When he didn't twist around and strike her, Sakura took that as a good sign and grabbed his sleeve more firmly. "Let's talk outside for a moment. Sai, Shikamaru, you two..." Sakura waves her hand around, not knowing what else to say before walking toward the door, giving his sleeve a little tug when the white haired man didn't start following after her right away.

Once they are outside, Sakura closes the door behind herself and looks at Tobirama as the Raijin vanishes in a distinct poof.

"Sakura, who was that man?" Tobirama says, turning toward her, stuffing his hands into his sleeves, frowning at her.

"My teammate. He was Sasuke's replacement in our team when he left. Sai..." Sakura hesitates. After everything that they've been through, despite being rude as all hell, Sai was Sakura's friend. She trusts him with her life and doesn't doubt in some twisted, logically fucked up way, he means well, she just didn't feel right trying to explain him to Tobirama, especially since the man wouldn't understand.

Sai's past was complex and not something that can just be explained away. Sai is acting like this for a reason and while it pisses Sakura off, she knows that she's going to have to figure it out. He's not just doing it to do it. There is something there. She'll just have to ask him about it later. For now, it doesn't feel right to just spill her friend's secrets. Tobirama would probably not be able to understand and Sakura's not certain that she would be able to really do her teammate and tentative friend justice, even if she attempted to explain it.

"Sai has lived a difficult life, up until recently," Sakura says slowly, choosing her words wisely. "He's having a hard time adjusting... and you are a stranger to him. He doesn't trust you..."

"The feeling is mutual," Tobirama says flatly. His red eyes are narrowed dangerous. "I don't like him."

Sakura smiles wanly, not really knowing what to say. "I bet. I'm sorry. Can we talk tomorrow? It'll be our last chance," Sakura says softly.

Tobirama's mistrustful red eyes soften. His eyes lock with her and there's an oddly, unhappy look on his face. "Sakura, are you sure this is what you want? You know that you don't have to go, right?"

Sakura nods. "I know, but this was never permanent," Sakura says, surprising herself with how lonely that made her feel. "When you guys saved me, kami, what feels like forever ago," Sakura sighs, shaking her head before continuing, "I knew one day I would have to leave. I have to find my way back home. I truly do believe in the Will and hope that all of your wishes for this village come true, but my home needs me. Now that I know that there are others out there, I have to try and find them. I have to get home, find out what happened."

Tobirama sighs, turning his intense gaze toward the forest, taking a moment to sense out he area, pausing to see Akamaru trotting through the trees toward them. He stops when he sees Tobirama, tilting his head to the side, curiously.

Sakura whistles sharply and opens the door. Akamaru runs toward her and into her home. She spots Shikamaru and Sai sitting at the table, looking at her, each with their own cup of tea.

"One minute," Sakura says to them before closing the door. She turns back to Tobirama and stares at him, waiting for him to collect his thought patiently.

Tobirama shakes his head slowly, lips moving but no sound coming out. He looks around the darkened trees, making face before his shoulders, which were considerably raised, fall. They stoop in such a way that mimicked defeat that Sakura just couldn't understand. He turns back toward her, darkness obscuring half of his face as he says, softly, "Is there nothing I can say to convince you otherwise?"

Sakura burned. She wanted so badly to ask him why. Why did he want her to stay? Why did he want to try so hard? Why was he asking her now? Why did he wait until she was about to leave before finally admitting everything? Why? Why? Why? 

But she couldn't. Something in his face gave her the impression that she would waste her breath on it. He would talk about it when he wanted to talk about it? Which she hoped was tomorrow, because they wouldn't get another chance after that. Sakura was leaving. She was really going to leave her home village, but this time, in it's founding.

Sakura can't lie. She is definitely going to miss it here. She's going to miss the people, the atmosphere, the founders, her students, all of it. She's going to miss it all., but she has to go. This was Konoha, but not her Konoha. She liked this place. She liked the potential that she knew was there, and currently untapped. But her home needed her. Her last fragmented memory of her home was it being under attack. She doesn't know why she doesn't remember, or Shikamaru and probably Sai too, but she knew that they had to get home.

"I'm sorry," Sakura says again, and genuinely means it. "My home needs me. I have to find out what happened to it."

Tobirama shakes his head. "I admire that," he says. "A lot of delegates from clans and the capital have come into the village the last couple of days. We will be busy with meetings all morning and afternoon, don't leave before we talk."

Sakura nods. "We won't."

Tobirama spares her a glance, opening his mouth as if to say something but changes his mind. He turns away and slinks into the darkness without another word. Sakura waits until his broad back is completely blended into the darkness, hiding him from view, before she turns away and heads back into her home, sitting down next to Shikamaru at the table, where she originally was, Sai being in the place that Tobirama once occupied.

Sakura reaches out and pets Akamaru on the top of his head.

"Sai," Shikamaru says, rubbing the heel of his palm into his eyes, "tell us what you remember. Do you remember the war ending?"

"Yes," Sai says easily.

Shikamaru pulls his hand away to stare at the black haired man across from them. "Okay. Do you remember the assault on the Hidden Leaf?"

Sai tilts his head to the side curiously. "I do. I remember everything. Why? Are you two having some problems remembering?"

"Yeah," Shkamaru sighs.

"I'm starting to wonder if it was the fever coupled with the jutsu that brought us back that caused the memory loss," Sakura says, running her fingers through her long pink hair.

"Could be," Shikamaru says. "Ultimately it doesn't matter. What matters is, is that a portion of our memories, including our mission, is completely gone. We need to figure out what to do next."

"But, why is Sai unaffected by this and we are?" Sakura asks, still hanging onto the memory loss and fever for a moment longer, before letting out a long-winded sigh. "Alright, whatever. That's something that we can figure out later. Since you remember, Sai, why are we here?"

Sai smiles at them. The large, closed eyed smile that he use to give them when he was first brought to their team. Sakura looks over at Shikamaru, who's eyebrows were pulled together. His eyes flicker down to her for a moment before looking back over at Sai.

"Well?" Shikamaru asks, propping up his left knee next to him, letting his elbow rest against it as he stares at the pale man in front of him.

"I'm a good ninja," Sai says.

Sakura raises an eyebrow. "Okay..? What the hell does that mean?"

"I didn't ask," Sai says. Sakura and Shikamaru blanch at that.

Shikamaru's eyebrow twitches, annoyed. He lets out a deep sigh, looking like he'd rather be doing just about anything other than this right now. "Okay, what can you tell us, Sai? Kami, this is so troublesome."

Sai's face becomes neutral once more. "I wasn't around much for the entire planning process. By the time I got into the process, everything was already planned out to a degree. When I got to the meeting place, Sasuke and Naruto were already sending people back in time."

Sakura's eyes widen. "Sasuke and Naruto?"

Sai nods. "Yes. They were using Sasuke's Rinnegan and Naruto and Kurama's partnership in order to send people back. Don't ask me how, I don't really know. But by the time I got there, they had already sent both of you back and just kind of shoved me along. So I don't know much."

Sakura and Shikamaru spare each other an exasperated look. "Fantastic," Shikamaru says bitterly. "Do you at least remember who attacked us?"

"We don't know exactly who they are," Sai says easily. "They were a mix of shinobi and samurai and it's... odd."

Sakura tilts her head to the side. "How so?"

Sai frowns, showing some real, genuine unhappiness and confusion. "They were shinobi and they could fight, they were obviously well trained but there was just something strange about it. Shikamaru actually said something that made it make sense," Sai says, glancing over at shirker. "You said, Shikamaru, that it was as if they were anti-shinobi, shinobi."

Shikamaru frowns, looking down at the table, tracing the grains with his eyes. It's obvious that he is trying to recall what brought him to that conclusion. Sakura feels kind of bad for Shikamaru. It's bad and frustrating enough for her to try and remember a piece of her life that she conveniently lost. It must be a living nightmare for a brainiac like Shikamaru. One of his best traits is not only his memory but his near full functioning brain. While it's hampered, he must feel like a part of him is being taken away.

"What does that mean?" Sakura asks, looking over at Sai, knowing Shikamaru wouldn't have the answers for her, much to both of their chagrin. "Anti-shinobi shinobi."

Sai looks over to the dark window next to her. "It's odd. They could do a lot of shinobi skills, but there was something about them and the way that they fight that just didn't seem right. It was like they were taught skills that counteracted average shinobi training. I don't know how to explain it. They were completely unpredictable."

"It's not only that, isn't it?" Shikamaru asks slowly, his eyebrows pulled together tightly as if trying to summon a memory out of an ocean that is heavily bogged down by weights. "It's something... something about the civilians..." He rubs at his temples, looking slightly pained at trying to summon the memories.

"Shikamaru," Sakura says slowly, wanting to tell him to stop. He wasn't back to full health just yet. He still needed to take it easy. He must have sensed the silent warning in her voice for he waved his hand at her dismissively. He looks at Sai, nodding for him to respond. Even though Sakura and Shikamaru were the same age and Sai was a few years older, there was still a chain of command. Shikamaru was still the Commander. He was in charge.

"Yes," Sai says, sparing Sakura a quick glance before looking over at Shikamaru. "They were not attacking any of the civilians outright. Only those that fought back."

"So this wasn't about destroying Konoha," Sakura says, horrified. "This was about taking it over."

"And here we are," Shikamaru says, grimly. "I fear they may have won."

Sakura's heart sank into the floor beneath her. Shikamaru and Sai both bow their heads in silence. No one knew what happened. And if Konoha really was destroyed - or occupied - then they may never be able to return home again.

Akamaru, probably sensing the strained and pained atmosphere in the room, lets out a low, pitiful whine.

 

The next morning, Sakura sets out early to see Aya and Salma. She gets them together and goes over all the things she taught them, leaving behind scrolls she's spent the last couple of days, especially since she learned she was going to leave before their training was finished, making scrolls for them to learn from. It's nothing too complex, but she hopes that it helps them out somehow in the future.

She gives them some tips and makes sure they really know everything that she taught them before going off to visit a friend.

"Back to work, I see," Sakura says, leaning against a nearby tree trunk.

Kaido Senju pauses in tying off one of the walls for a new building. He looks over at Sakura, smiles and quickly tying off wall, stepping back a moment to make sure that it's up and secure before turning around and walking over to Sakura.

"I'm going to take a break, Han," Kaido tells one of the other Senju.

"It'll only be a minute," Sakura says, smiling over at the Senju before turning her gaze to Kaido. "How are you feeling? How's your arm?"

He rotates his right arm in it's socket. "It's good. It feels better than what I would expect. It's a little numb in certain spots but I'm already used to it."

Sakura nods. "That's good. I'm sorry about not being able to completely fix your problem, but I'm glad that you are able to work around it. It's not hampering you too badly?"

Kaido grins broadly, shaking his head. "After I was burned, I pretty much expected that I was never going to be able to move my arm ever again. I wouldn't be able to be a shinobi anymore, let alone do any sort of decent housework, at least for a while until I found ways around it, but you gave me all of that back. If it's a choice between parts of my arm being numb but still being able to use it, or not being able to use it at all, I think I'll stick with the former."

Sakura smiles. "I'm glad to hear it."

Kaido hesitates for a moment before saying, slowly, "Word through the grapevine is that you're going to be leaving soon?"

Sakura nods. "Today, actually. I'm going to be meeting with Lords Hashirama, Tobirama and Madara before I head out. I'm just making the rounds before I do. I want to make sure I don't leave anything half done." Well, other than Aya and Salma's training. But that is something that she begrudgingly couldn't help. But at least they have a lot more tools now than they did before.

Kaido looks a little sad, offering a little smile. "I'm sorry. I'm glad that you were able to be here. Thank you so much for helping us out. We really appreciate it." Kaido bows low at the waist. "I can never properly thank you, my lady. Thank you."

Sakura smiles. "You are very welcome. Take care of yourself," she says kindly.

"Be safe out there, Sakura-sama," Kaido says, straightening up.

Sakura nods slowly. "Thank you, Kaido. I'll let you go now. Bye!"

Kaido nods again. "You too! Goodbye!"

Sakura makes it halfway to her next patient when she runs into a familiar face. It was Keigo Uchiha. He was walking slowly back toward the Uchiha side of the village, looking bashful about something.

"Hello, Keigo," Sakura says. She didn't mean to surprise him, but he jumps in surprise.

Spinning around to look at Sakura, he looks like he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "Sakura-san!" He says, black eyes blown wide. He looks around for a moment, as if waiting for someone else to come springing out from around the corner.

Sakura eyes him suspiciously. "What's up..?" Sakura asks.

Keigo looks down at her, pale face darkening in embarrassment. "I... I'm sorry..."

Sakura raises an eyebrow slowly. "For..?"

"I... I don't know..." He admits, looking completely embarrassed. "I was spacing off when I know I shouldn't have... I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Sakura says. "Everyone spaces out. But you look like something good just happened to you. Was that what caused you to space out? Did something good happen?"

Keigo hesitates, looking deeply embarrassed. For such a tall and obviously talented shinobi, he looks like a bashful young man. "Yes. Something good did happen, but I... I shouldn't have been dwelling on it, I'm suppose to be focusing on patrol." He runs his hands through his short dark hair.

Sakura puts a hand on his shoulder. "I won't beat myself up about it, Keigo. It's okay to be happy, don't worry about it. Besides, I'm sure if it was someone dangerous sneaking up on you, you would have snapped out of it. So don't be too broken up over it."

Keigo bows a bit. "Yes ma'am," Keigo says softly, still looking a little upset with himself. "Is there something I can do to help you, Sakura-san? Do you have some business with the Uchiha?" He nods toward the home of his family.

"Yeah," Sakura says. "I'm actually wondering if you knew if Izuna-sama was home or if he was in the meetings with Madara-sama."

Keigo shakes his head. "I honestly don't know. I'd be happy to escort you, if you'd allow it."

Sakura smiles. "Yes, that would be great."

With Keigo as her escort, Sakura felt a little better. Something didn't feel right about walking through any of the clans - Uchiha, Senju, Akimichi, Yamanaka - cluster of homes without someone from that clan there with her. It's weird. It can't just be Sakura, can it? She didn't know.

They travel in silence all the way to Madara and Izuna's house. Sakura steps up and gives a hardy knock, knowing that Izuna's room is deep in the house and it might be hard for him to hear if she didn't knock loud enough. That, and maybe she was a little nervous with Keigo at her back. Not that she didn't like him or thought there was something wrong with him, it's just that he's still obvious upset over having been caught off guard that his anxiety is crawling up Sakura's spine as it radiates off of him.

A moment later, the door slides open and Izuna appears, looking tired, but healthier than before. It's nice to see him up and about. He's wearing a blue kimono and pants with the top open a bit, showing off his pale chest. He looks like he just crawled out of bed.

"Sakura, Keigo," Izuna says, looking down at Sakura, then squinting a bit at Keigo.

The Uchiha bows respectfully. "My lord. Sakura-san, I will leave you now."

"Thank you, Keigo," Sakura says, tipping her head a bit before turning back to Izuna. "How are you doing, Izuna-sama?"

Izuna steps aside. "Do you want to come in?"

Sakura shakes her head. "I shouldn't. I need to keep moving, but I just wanted to make sure that you were doing okay. How are you? How are you feeling?"

Izuna leans against the doorframe, smiling tiredly. "I am good. Tired, but I feel a lot stronger than I did before. I've been practicing chakra control exorcises to start rebuilding control."

"How do you feel?" Sakura asks, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Like I've five again, trying to learn how to control my chakra," Izuna says, running a hand through his wild dark blue hair. "At least Madara's not a drill sergent like my father was," Izuna sighs, eyes drooping closed. "Doesn't make me want to punch him in the throat any less, though."

Sakura chokes on air, surprised by Izuna's words. "Why's that?" She asks curiously. She can't help herself. He can't just offer up that nugget of information and not elaborate on it. That's just not fair.

Izuna smiles boyishly. "He's overbearing. I know he's looking out for me and I appreciate it, but sometimes he's annoying the hell out of me. I feel like a well poised, swift strike to the throat will show him I'm serious."

Sakura snorts loudly, throwing her hands over her mouth. "Oh Kami. I did not expect to hear this." It's kind of hard to imagine, but is Izuna... kind of a goofball?

Izuna shrugs. "What can I say? They call me the wild brother."

Sakura shakes her head. "I can believe that. But anyway, it's nice to see you up and about and I'm glad that you're feeling better."

"It's thanks to you," Izuna says, sombering up easily. "I can't show my appreciation enough."

"Don't worry about it," Sakura says dismissively. "Just don't push yourself too hard too soon. Know your limits and while he may be a bit annoying about it. I'm sure Madara means well. You might want to listen to him. At least until you're feeling all better."

Izuna nods. "Yeah, I know. I'm just saying."

"Well, get better, Izuna-sama. I'm going to be heading out later tonight and I wanted to make sure that you were doing alright before I do," Sakura says, uncrossing her arms.

Izuna nods. "Yeah, I'm okay. Thank you again, Sakura. If you ever need anything. Just let me know."

Sakura smiles. "Thank you, Izuna-sama. I appreciate it. I'll let you know if I do."

"Good," Izuna smiles, letting out a short jerk of his head awkwardly. "I'll be seeing you."

Sakura nods. "Goodbye."

 

Sakura waits until the last of the delegates are out of the room before stepping up to the door and knocking. "It's Sakura!" She calls in to the men inside.

"Come in, Sakura-chan!" Hashirama calls.

Sakura opens the door to see the three founders, the Yamanaka clan leader, Akimichi and the Sarutobi clan leaders all sitting around the table inside. They all stop at the sight of her, decked out in her shinobi attire; red shirt, black shorts and boots with her pink battle skirt. But the biggest difference of all in on her head.

"Do you like it?" Sakura asks, teasingly, bringing her hair up to the short pink locks, tugging a bit at the bottom. Now it just barely brushes her collar bones, like before. "Figured I'd be go back to what I'm used to. Salma helped me do it."

"It looks nice," Hashirama says, being the first to speak. Somehow, she's not surprised.

"Thanks," Sakura says, smiling at him. "Well, it looks like a storm is coming so Shikamaru wants to get on the road a little early to try and outrun it so we're going to be leaving early."

Hashirama doesn't look happy about it, his face drawn and slightly pale, but he nods. "That's a good idea. I don't think we can try and convince you to stay for another day, can we?"

Sakura shakes her head. "No, I'm afraid not. I'm not going to take up much more of your time. I know you have another meeting coming up and I wanted to say goodbye before we ran off."

Hashirama easily climbs to his feet and walks around the table, opening his arms out to Sakura. She steps into them, relishing in his warmth.

"Thank you, Sakura-chan, for everything," Hashirama says softly. "You know that if you ever need anything, all you need to do is ask, yes?" Sakura nods, closing her eyes for a moment.

"Yes, my lord," Sakura says softly. "Thank you."

Hashirama gives her a hearty squeeze before pulling back and stepping aside. Madara steps up and for a crazy moment, Sakura thought he was going to hug her too, but instead, he did something she didn't expect. He held his hand out to her and for a moment Sakura couldn't help the swell of pride and respect bubble up in her belly. This was one of the most respectful things a man like Madara could do for her.

She took his hand and shakes it slowly.

"My friend," Madara says easily, not acknowledging anyone else in the room but her. "I wish you safe travels. I hope that we may see each other again soon. And know that you have made life-long allies with my clan and I."

Sakura smiles, bowing a bit. "Thank you, Madara-sama."

Madara nods before stepping back. Tobirama steps forward and offers his hand as well. She is more prepared for this but not any less appreciative of it.

"Thank you again, for the seal, Tobirama-sama," Sakura says, shaking his hand slowly, not wanting to let go just yet.

"You are welcome, Sakura. I hope that we may meet again soon," he says softly, red eyes half hidden under lowered eyelids.

Sakura smiles, feeling a stab of pain in her chest. "Me too," she admits, clenching his hand tighter than she meant to, but he doesn't seem to mind. For a moment, they connected hands just dangle between them, as Sakura and Tobirama just stare at one another. All she could do was stare into his pretty red eyes as the scan her face. Almost as if committing it to memory, but that would be absurd. Why would Tobirama want to do something like that?

"Hey, Sakura," Shikamaru peaks his head in, making Sakura jump.

"Yeah?" She looks over at him with wide green eyes, probably looking guilty for something.

"We'd best go now," he says slowly, before disappearing back outside.

"Thank you," Sakura says to Tobirama again, then to Hashirama and Madara. "Thank you." She finally pulls her hand back from Tobirama's and it makes her sad. She bow to the other clan leaders. "My lords. Farewell."

"Gentlemen," Hashirama says to the other clan leaders, "we will walk our friend to the edge of the village for a final goodbye. We will be back in a moment."

Sakura blushes. "You don't have to," she says, but doesn't stop them from following her outside. She easily slips her shoes back on and walks over to Shikamaru, Sai and Akamaru, who were waiting for her a few feet away.

"Allow us this," Hashirama says softly, looking ten years older. Sakura hopes he'll be able to take a break soon, he looks terrible. "A goodbye to a good friend."

So Sakura, her friends both new and old, walk to the 'edge' of the village which was just a few feet away from the last building before they stop. Nod to each other in a strangely impersonal, but understanding way, before Shikamaru, Sai and Sakura bow lowly to the three founders, Akamaru tipping his head as well, before they race off. At the very least, Sai remembered where they were all going to meet.

The place that would one day be the Valley of the End.

Sakura glances over her shoulder at the three men as she puts distance between them, watching as they get smaller and smaller. They don't move from where they were until Sakura could no longer see them.

This entire thing felt so wrong. Sakura didn't want to leave. She didn't want to be anywhere else but there. It just didn't feel right.


	19. The Call

"Thanks for doing this for me," Sakura says, looking around the barren room that was once her bedroom in the house Hashirama had built for her. It was strange to see it so empty. She remembered moving into it, and it wasn't as long ago that she did that as she would like to believe, and it was like this. But she had since gotten used to her meager belongings being in this room. Now that everything was sealed up, that she could take with her, it felt like she never really lived there. Which made her a little sad.

In some foolish way, in the back of Sakura's mind she almost wondered if it was possible for her to be part of this - the founding of her village, she means - and see what it's like to build a village from the ground up. But that was a foolish thing to think. She was never meant to be there. She was never meant to be part of this lifestyle.

She will live in Konoha one day, but the time of the founding is not the time.

Salma, who is carefully cutting her hair, pauses. "You're welcome, sensei," Salma says softly. She lightly runs her fingers through Sakura's hair, using them to detangle any knots that may have worked their way into the pink tresses.

"Are you okay?" Sakura asks, fighting the urge to turn and look at the kind Senju woman.

"I'm okay," Salma says sadly, betraying her words. "I'll... I'll just miss you."

Sakura smiles sadly. "I'm miss you too, Salma. Aya too. I'll miss everyone here. It was a true honor to meet you all."

"Thank you," Salma says, pulling her fingers away from Sakura's hair for a moment to rest her forehead against the back of Sakura's shoulder. "Sensei, I need a bit of guidance. I know you are about to leave, but can I ask?"

Sakura turns her head a bit to look at the top of Salma's brown haired head. "Yeah, Salma. Go ahead. Remember, before your sensei, I am your friend."

"I told him I loved him," Salma mumbles just barely loud enough for Sakura to hear her.

Sakura's eyebrows shoot toward her hairline. "What? Who?"

Salma raises her eyes, showing frightened green eyes. "The boy I've been meeting in secret. I told him that I loved him yesterday. Am I crazy?"

Sakura turns around, not caring that half of her hair was still long. "No, Salma, that's not wrong. What have you been seeing him for? A month? A month and a half?"

Salma nods, not specifying to which. She didn't have to, though, it didn't really matter. Sakura actually felt a little bad. She hadn't spent a lot of time actually thinking about her friend and her relationship. Sakura has been so focused on making sure that Salma was learning everything that Sakura could teach her in the limited time that they had and hadn't given much thought to the girl's love life.

Sakura hasn't exactly been a good friend.

At this point it sort of felt like it was too late to try and salvage that, though. Salma smiles a bit, pushing on Sakura's shoulders to turn her around so that Salma could keep working on her hair.

"Don't give me that look," Salma says perceptively. "You have been so kind to me and so busy, I don't expect to be the center of your universe. It's fine."

"I don't feel like a good friend," Sakura admits.

Salma lets out a soft laugh. It twinkles, like a beautiful melody. "Don't worry about that. You've been wonderful to me. I couldn't ask for a better friend and sensei. I just... I brought it up, not to make you feel bad, but because I'm worried. It was too soon to say something, wasn't it?"

Sakura doesn't respond right away. She wasn't exactly the best person to be coming to about things such as this. She has never been in a relationship before and wasn't exactly certain how it was suppose to go. But Sakura couldn't see anything wrong with Salma saying that she loved the man that she loved.

"You love him, right?" Sakura asks for clarification. "You meant what you said, right?"

"Yes," Salma says. "I did. I love my husband, don't get me wrong. He was so kind to me, even though it was an arranged marriage. I couldn't have asked for a better life partner, but..."

"He's gone now," Sakura says delicately. "You couldn't have prevented his death, Salma, you shouldn't feel bad about that. And about this man, if you love him, I believe you. It's a stroke of good luck that you managed to love the man you were assigned to marry. But he's gone. You're still young and no matter what anyone says, you deserve to find love. And if you fell in love with this man naturally, then it's fine. At least, that's what I think, anyway."

Salma doesn't speak right away, digesting Sakura's words. They listen to the sound of Salma carefully snipping away the pink strands of hair for about a minute before Salma says softly, almost afraid to be happy, "He was stunned at first, but... but then he got the biggest smile I've ever seen on his face. He knows that I was married before and he doesn't care. He... he's so good. He's so kind..." Salma sighs.

Sakura smiles. "Then I think you already know your answer, Salma. I won't claim to be an expert on love, but I think this all sounds good to me."

Salma snips away at the hair. "What about you, Sakura-sensei? Do you have someone you love?"

Sakura's immediate reaction was confusion. Half of her brain immediately supplied Sasuke's face to the forefront of her mind. But then a good chunk of the other half altered his face to the look that he had as he was choking the life from her, swearing for what felt like the last time that she was nothing to him. His chidori charged up in his hand ready to pierce her chest and kill her. He was going to do it, she could see it in his eyes. She meant nothing to him.

But then the tiny, remaining bit of her brain supplied a different face. As soon as she saw those intense, enchanting red eyes, lacking any sort of black tomo, Sakura shoved the thought away.

"I..." Sakura says softly, lowering her head a bit. "I don't know anymore."

Salma snipped the last bit of hair and when Sakura glanced up at the mirror the Senju woman offered her, Sakura saw the face of an unhappy girl staring back at her.

 

"Sakura?"

Sakura jerks awake, looking around dazedly. She sees Shikamaru staring down at her with a raised eyebrow.

"What?" Sakura mumbles, sitting up higher. "Did I fall asleep?"

Shikamaru nods. "Yeah, but it's fine. It's your turn for watch, though."

Sakura roughly rubs at her eyes, giving herself a hard shake to send the dream away from her. Well, it was a memory from a few days ago, since she left what would one day be her home. What has it been already, three days? It was taking forever for them to get to the Valley. They ran into bad weather, much to Shikamaru's chagrin.

So they've had to travel at a snail's pace dodging the harsh wind and hail. Winter is right around the corner and so there are times when it's started to snow but the ground is still too hot for the snow to stick, but the tree branches are a different story and it's getting a bit dangerous to be jumping from branch to branch so high up with the temperature cooling down and the water starting to freeze and then turn to slush.

"I'm up," Sakura says, rubbing her hands together. They're chilled. "You can get some rest, Shikamaru."

Shikamaru nods, walking over to Akamaru, who was sleeping by the tiny fire they've set up to offer them a bit of warmth. Shikamaru reaches out and pets down Akamaru's damp fur, shaking the white strands of hair that got stuck on his fingers with disgust, probably already regretting his bit of uncharacteristic affection for the lonely white bear-like dog.

Akamaru's tail starts wagging as he lifts his head for a moment before laying it back down on his paws. Shikamaru returns to his place under one of the close by trees, wraps his arms around himself and closes his eyes to try and get a bit of sleep before the rain pounding against the trees around them let up and they start moving again.

Sakura takes a moment to listen to the sounds of the forest. Everything is hiding from the cold rain or preparing to sleep for the winter. Even the bugs are quiet. It's just the sound of rain and the crackling of the small fire along with the soft breathing of Shikamaru and Sai, who's curled up on the other side of camp in the shadows. He was there when Sakura fell asleep, it looks like he hasn't move much in a while. Akamaru was curled up near the fire, quiet now, but more often than not, he's whimpering in his sleep and when they wake him, he would look around for Kiba only to realize that Kiba wasn't there and he'd let out a little pained whine before curling up into a little ball to keep warm.

Sakura felt bad for Akamaru more than anyone else, really.

He was a ninken, therefore a lot smarter than an actual dog, but he probably doesn't understand why Kiba wasn't with him. Sakura didn't know either and Sai's only explanation was that it was because Naruto and Sasuke's jutsu that sent them back was unstable and separated Akamaru and Kiba when they were being sent back, but he didn't really know for certain.

"Don't worry, Akamaru," Sakura says softly, not meaning to be heard. She wasn't. "We will be with everyone soon and you and Kiba will be together again."

Sakura pulls her damp cloak tighter around herself as she looks around the forest for any shifting shadows but she can't imagine what crazy would be needed for someone to be slinking around in this weather.

Well, the desperate kind of crazy, Sakura supposes in their case. They are all a little desperate to get home. Or at least get to where everyone else is and be around the familiarity of friends and family.

Sakura wanted that so badly. She wanted to be with all of her friends and family. She wanted to be where everything was what she knew. There was no cultural differences, no one to question who she is or how she was raised, no one to look at her and question her dignity and personal upkeep, no one who didn't - to some degree - understand what she was going through. She was going to people that knew her, that loved her and that she loved.

Not... not that she hadn't grown to love the founders and their families.

Sakura had to wonder what they were up to now. No doubt nice and warm within their own homes. For that, Sakura is completely and utterly envious of, but she also knows that Hashirama, Madara and Tobirama have been engrossed in meetings for the last few days. As they were leaving, Sakura, Sai and Shikamaru had to avoid a bunch of dignitaries that were flooding into the village to speak with the three founders about lands and missions and things of the like. There was also clans coming in too, Shikamaru made sure to duck away from the Nara clan, but there was also the Aburame and Shimura that were coming in to see the founders. The village was really taking shape and Sakura was so happy about it.

But in the back of her mind, she worried too.

Hashirama did not look good as she was leaving and while she's sure that Tobirama and Madara have noticed, Hashirama is really the spear of their persuasive force. Tobirama and Madara are very charismatic and persuasive men but Hashirma is damn near impossible not to like. He wins people over not just because of his charisma but because he's so damn likable.

Sakura fears that logic may be what will keep Hashirama from taking a much needed rest. No doubt Madara and Tobirama care about Hashirama's health, but all of them are willing to do what is necessary for the village, be damned the consequences. Sakura worries about that. Deeply. It was that forward thinking - that the Village comes first - that ultimately put Hashirama and Madara on opposite sides of the spectrum, right? It's what ruined their friendship and lead to the Moon-Eye plan in the future, right?

Sakura didn't know. But she's anxious. More than anything, she wishes she was there. She might be able to help smooth over any dark storms on the horizon. She's not claiming to be perfect or anything of the sort, but no one else in the world - other than her and her friends - would know to look for things such as that. No one else would have any reason to.

It's no one's fault that Madara became the way he did, Sakura's coming to realize.

Madara didn't leave the Leaf because he hated it. He didn't send Obito to attack it because he wanted it destroyed - well, maybe he did, to a degree - but what really drove him to that was love. Madara loved Konoha, but Konoha was afraid of him. Afraid of his intentions, even though it was the exact same as what Hashirama's was.

The greatest difference between Hashirama and Madara was that Hashirama was a free spirit. His happiness and glee showed on his face easily. Madara was a lot stealthier about his kindness. His face is naturally set more sternly than Hashirama's and it's harder for him to express the kindness on his face, even though he really is kind.

It's misleading.

Sakura feels bad for Madara. He's a kind man and not many believe him. It's so sad.

Sakura runs her cold fingers through her damp hair, hoping that they can get out of the cold soon. They're all going to get sick at this rate. Which is exactly what Shikamaru needs. He's still recovering from the sickness that seems to of followed them back in time. Or, could it be a product of whatever Naruto and Sasuke did to send them back?

Sakura just didn't know.

She wished she could remember. As much as she loved Salma, she wished the dreams of memories that she had would be of her time back home. She wished that she would be able to recall more about what happened leading up to them being sent back in time. Now that she knows there is others alive out there, then there has to be more answers.

Plus, it's just her friends and family. She wants to see them. She wants to be with them.

Sakura closes her eyes and lets out a long winded sigh. She didn't know what to do. She takes a moment to quickly tug the hood of her cloak further forward to shield more of her from the rain.

For the past day or so, Sakura has had the worst feeling in the world in the pit of her stomach. As much as she wants to go to the Valley of the End - or what will one day... maybe? - and see everyone, she just has this horrible feeling like she needs to return to the Hidden Leaf. There is something there that keeps on tugging at the back of her mind. It's like a siren's call that is getting harder and harder to ignore.

But Sakura also wants to go and see her friends and family.

She's really torn, especially now. She wants to see her friends and family. She wants to be around the people that she has been missing painfully, but she just couldn't fight this feeling. There is something really calling out to her for her to return to Konoha, in its founding time.

Sakura groans, digging her nails into her scalp just wanting her mind and her heart to settle on one place already. She really shouldn't have spent as much time there as she did. Maybe then, it wouldn't have been this hard to leave.

Sakura yanks her hands from her hair and tilts her chin up toward the sky, although unable to see it through the thick branches of the trees above, she can imagine what it looks like. It's probably cloudy as hell, blocking out the moon from sight.

A twig snaps a few feet from her and Sakura's instincts kick in immediately. She jumps to her feet, pulling out two kunai, turning toward the sound. She can hear Akamaru standing up, sniffing the air but unable to pick up a scent for he lets out a little whine. In the corner of her eye, she can see Sai jumping to his feet, pulling out his short blade and pressing his back against the tree, sliding off to one side to get the jump on whomever was sneaking up on them.

Sakura spots the shadow getting closer, and quickly. Sakura tenses up, tossing the kunai into the darkness, toward the shadow. There is a blur of motion as the kunai is knocked away before the figure steps out into the dim firelight, revealing himself.

Sakura's eyes widen. "Tobirama-sama?" She lowers her other kunai to her side, feeling strange for pointing her kunai at him in the first place. "What are you doing out here?"

Tobirama looks like a soaked rat. He's wearing his armor but all his clothes and even his hair are soaked through. He must have been traveling in the rain for a while - and for what? What in the world was he doing out there in this shitty weather? Was... was he tracking them? But why?

"Are you okay?" Sakura asks, panic and worry starting to set in. She walks over to him. The Raijin in his hand, probably what he used to deflect her kunai, is tilted down toward the dirt. Sakura steps right up to him, trying to get a good look at him in the dim light.

His white hair is gray in the darkness and pressed tightly against his skull from the rain. His clothes are dark and hang off him, probably ten pounds heavier than they usually are. His normally pale face is red from presumably a mixture of exertion trying to catch up with them and from the cold. His breath is small, controlled puffy clouds in front of his face.

"What's going on?" Sakura asks, eyes widen.

"Sakura," Tobirama says softly, red eyes honing in on her face. There is a strange strained noise to his voice, making Sakura's stomach drop. Something is definitely wrong, "I need you to come back to the village, now."

"What?" Sakura asks, blinking rapidly.

"Please," Tobirama says, his voice deeply pleading. Even his eyes are blown wide.

Sakura reaches out without thinking a puts a hand on his shoulder. Even though he's looking at her, it almost feels like he doesn't see her. The moment her hands settled against the cold metal, Sakura suddenly realized that might not being a good idea, as she started pulling her hand back, he quickly grabs it, holding it in place a few inches from his shoulder. His fingers are cold, but his palm is warm. At least, warmer than her fingers.

"What's wrong?" Sakura asks softly, eyebrows pulled together tightly.

"Hashirama," Tobirama says softly, his face betraying his feelings of worry.

"Hashirama-sama?" Sakura says, stunned. A feeling of dread starts crawling around in her belly. "What about him? What's wrong?"

Tobirama's face is drawn tight with apprehension and worry. "He collapsed. Our healers don't know what's wrong. Salma said she couldn't figure out what happened. He is... he's losing his color so fast. He's... he's groaning in pain. I've never heard him groan in pain before." Tobirama's long, wet lashes tremble a bit. There is something almost... traumatized about his attitude. "He..." Tobirama says slowly. He shakes his head. "Please, Sakura, please. Come back with me." He raises his eyes to look at her.

Sakura is so shocked by his attitude that she didn't respond right away. She is just in shock at how... raw his emotions are playing across his face. He has to be deeply troubled by this. Hashirama must not be brought down by much.

"Please," Tobirama says, blinking rapidly. "Please, I need you. Hashirama needs you."

Sakura nods, turning toward Shikamaru, who had a troubled look on his face. The kunai he was holding is now hanging limply at his side. Sakura steps closer to him.

"Shikamaru, permission to return to the village," Sakura says.

Shikamaru doesn't respond right away, he's looking over at them, but he doesn't appear to actually be there. It's almost as if he's lost to his own thoughts. Sakura's eyebrows pull together tighter.

"Shikamaru?" Sakura calls out, walking over to him. She peers up at him, worried that maybe he was sick from all the rain and the cold. "Shikamaru?"

"I'm okay..." Shikamaru says, blinking slowly. "I... what?"

"I need permission to return to the village, Hashirama-sama has collapsed," Sakura says, frowning a bit at the far away look in Shikamaru's eyes. "Shikamaru!"

Shikamaru blinks rapidly, a strange look - as if one of remembrance - crosses his face. "What?"

"Hashirama-sama needs me," Sakura says, glancing over his shoulder to see Tobirama shifting back and forth from one foot to the other with this apprehensious look on his face. His fingers are itching at his side, anxious to get back home and to his brother.

"Oh," Shikamaru says, blinking rapidly, pulling Sakura's attention back to him. He runs his hand over his forehead. "Yes, right. Go, Sakura. Head back to the village with Akamaru. Sai and I will head to the meeting place. Good luck. We will come back for you. Just go." Shikamaru's face is stern and... determined? As if he remembered something that has renewed his determination.

Sakura was curious about the somewhat odd pairing but then figured that there was only four of them and Akamaru pretty much counted as a person so it would make sense to split it up two and two.

Sakura nods, rolling her shoulders back. "Right. Come, Akamaru, let's go."

Akamaru barks and quickly heads to her side. Now that he knows they are going to follow him, Tobirama turns around and starts to head back to the village, a lot faster than Sakura dared to go, especially since it's getting colder and the mud is getting slicker and slicker as the night goes on. But Sakura can sense the urgency and begins following after him, working hard to stay as close as she can.

A quick glance back shows Sai putting out the fire and the two of them heading out in the opposite direction, with renewed vigor. Sakura sends out a silent prayer for their journey, hoping that it is a short and safe one. Sakura turns back around and focuses hard on trying to keep up with the future Second Hokage but it's a lot harder than it sounds.

Sakura easily begins to fall behind, her feet slipping and sliding on the icy dirt. Tobirama finally came to a complete stop, turning to look at her as she struggles to keep up. Once she reaches him, Tobirama grabs her hand, holding it tightly in his own, the one not holding onto the Raijin, before he starts running again, going slower than before but pulling her along quicker than she was originally going.

"How long have you been tracking us?" Sakura asks after over an hour of silence. The rain has finally let us, but the doesn't mean that it's not still cold out and the ground is sloshy.

"About a day," Tobirama says crisply, not pausing for a moment to look back at her. "Although you guys didn't make it far."

"Yeah," Sakura says. "Shikamaru was a bit pissed about that."

"I'm glad it worked out this way," Tobirama says, then stops, as if he remembered something. Sakura runs into the back of him, her nose smashing into his back armor plate. Sakura's eyes water almost immediately. She brings her free hand up to her face, trying to ease the pain in her nose. Thankfully, it's not broken or anything, but that still hurt.

"Ow," Sakura mumbles.

Tobirama spins around to look at her, mentally debating on something before shaking his head and continuing on, pulling Sakura along with him. Sakura could no nothing other than follow after, still wiping the tears from her eyes. He's frantic, Sakura realizes, his rational thinking is being put aside of panic. This can only mean something extraordinarily horrible. Sakura's glad for the grip on her hand. With him pulling her along, she'll make it there a lot quicker than she would without him practically yanking her arm out of it's socket. Tobirama picked up the speed about an hour later, going faster than Sakura has ever ran in her entire life, her feet barely touch the ground after that.

It felt like she was flying. Literally.

A few hours pass before the village comes back into view, by then the sun is already up and the world is warming up once more. Once the water has melted enough, they take to the trees, moving at regular shinobi speed. Well, for Sakura. It must feel like a snail's pace for Tobirama, being as fast as he is, but he finally let go of her hand and let her run on her home. Now that the village is coming into view, they both kick it into high gear and blaze their way back to the village. All of the patrols they met along the way made sure to stay the hell out of the way because Tobirama was on the warpath.

Sakura's almost certain the white haired man was wound tightly enough to utterly destroy anyone who dared stop him at this point in time. No one was going to stop him from making it back to his brother. No one.

The guards standing around the perimeter had to basically jump out of the way to avoid being run over by Tobirama, Sakura hot on his heels as they fly into the village, heading immediately to the Senju side of the village. Thankfully there is enough stable buildings that are up around the village that Tobirama took to the roofs as soon as he could, avoiding the crowd that filled the streets, not minding the early morning. It is a shinobi village, it wakes up early.

They make it to the main household, where Tobirama and Hashirama live, and head inside, neither stopping for a moment to take their shoes off.

As soon as Sakura stepped into the room, she knew that it was bad. The room had an odd assortment of people gathered in it. The ones she recognized was Madara, Salma, Aya, two other Senju healers, what she believes is a Senju elder and an actual medical shinobi. There is three other men in the room that she didn't know but she didn't stop to analyze them. She didn't care enough at the moment.

"Sakura-sensei!" Aya says, black eyes blown wide. Her hair is messy, obviously having been up all night and she looks noticeably frazzled. "Thank Kami that you're here!"

"Sensei," Salma says, spinning around from where she was at Hashirama's side. Her brown eyes are panicked and frightened. "Oh sensei, please! Help us, please!"

Sakura's eyes fall to the man in the center of the room. Her eyes widen in horror. It had only been about three days - probably more like two and a half - and yet Hashirama looked completely different.

His skin was so pale, it was like a sheet, with the exception of his cheeks which were a feverish red color. His hair and skin is shiny from profusely sweating. He's curled up on his side, rolled into a small ball, whimpering. Yes, actually whimpering. His limbs were trembling and he seemed oblivious to the outside world.

"Sakura," Madara says, pulling her eyes up to the dark haired man and Sakura's heart plummeted. They are haunted, as if he's seen a ghost. "Please, save him."

Sakura doesn't wait a moment longer, she kicks off her shoes by the door and discards her cloak and runs over to Hashirama's side, Salma quickly jumping out of the way. Sakura tentatively touches his shoulder.

"Hashirama-sama, it's Sakura, can you open your eyes for me?" Sakura asks, giving his shoulder a little squeeze. Hashirama doesn't outwardly react to her. Sakura doesn't remove her eyes from the man in front of her, but says to Salma and Aya, "Report."

"Fever, vomit, abdominal pains, loss of consciousness," Aya says quickly, dropping down next to Salma, significantly calmer now that Sakura is back.

"How long has this all been going on?" Sakura asks, scanning him with her chakra over his torso.

"He's been vomiting the past day and half, then came the abdominal pains and fever and when he lost consciousness Tobirama-sama finally left to go get you," Salma says just as quickly. "He's been slipping in and out of consciousness since. But... sensei..." Salma says brokenly, her eyes swelling up with tears.

Sakura glances back at him. "What is it?"

"He's in so much pain," Salma says softly. "He's... he's fading quickly. I... I can't find what's wrong with him..." Tears trickle down her face. "How can I be a medical shinobi if I can't even save my own lord? What do we do?"

"It's alright, Salma," Sakura says, offering a weak smile. "I'm here. Together we can do this."

Salma nods, roughly wiping the tears away and swallowing down her fear to focus. Sakura turns back to Hashirama, eyebrows pulling together tightly to try and concentrate on his body. There is internal bleeding but his chakra is healing it up quickly, making it hard to determine where the bleeding is coming from, which is both good, and a pain.

Sakura shakes her head. There is a large amount of infection liquid in his abdomen that can probably attribute to the pain and the fever but Sakura doesn't have the slightest idea where it came from. He's not hurt anywhere, as far as she can tell, then a strange thought occurred to her.

"Help me, girls," Sakura says, pushing Hashirama onto his back, despite his groans of protest. Salma and Aya go to both of his sides and put their hands on his arm to keep in in place while Sakura shoves the covers out of the way and while awkwardly reaching around Aya, Sakura starts to pull open his kimono. Even his normally toned, tan skin on his chest is paper white, with the exception of a horrible discoloration on his abdomen. Sakura lightly probes it with a finger and Hashirama calls out in pain, letting out a horrible gasping noise before rolling away from Sakura toward Salma, shivering like mad.

"What was that?" Aya asks, eyes wide. "That on his stomach! Was he hit recently?"

"No," Madara says, keeping against the far wall and out of the way. He looks like he's about to run from the room, like seeing his best friend in this position is damaging his calm. Tobirama doesn't look any better. "We've been in meetings for the last few days. None of us have even had a chance to do any sort of training."

"Sakura-sensei," Salma says, looking up at Sakura with wide eyes. "What's wrong with him?"

Sakura shakes her head slowly. "I... I don't know." Sakura's fears have become reality. Hashirama has collapsed and she doesn't know why.


	20. Hashirama's Power

Sakura runs her hands over his body, being sure to hover a few inches above his skin, trying to find out what was ailing her future Hokage, and friend. Sakura's eyebrows pull together tightly. She can see the infection in his lower abdomen, but she just couldn't figure out where it came from. Sakura wanted to take a moment to really figure out what was wrong with him, but Hashirama cries out in pain, his normally jubilant face is twisted in agony.

The room stares at her anxiously but none as powerful as Tobirama and Madara. They were practically burrowing holes through her. Sakura couldn't spend another second thinking about it now while he's still in so much pain.

Sakura raises her eyes to Aya and Salma, who are staring at her with wide, worried eyes. "Alright, ladies," Sakura says and their backs straighten up. "I need bowls of water, a lot, and some clean rags. I need a pen and paper and all of the herbs I write down, a lot of them. You healers, help them out." The girls nod and stand up, the other healers in the room nod, climbing to their feet too. "Oh," Sakura calls out to them, making them pause. "And bring me some alcohol."

The girls stare at her for a moment, as if waiting for the punch line. Sakura stares at them. After a moment of just staring Sakura says, "Is the alcohol on my face? If not, then go! Now." Salma and Aya jump before running from the room as fast as they could.

Sakura turns away and starts setting up the room, forcing herself not to pause to look over at Hashirama every time he whimpers softly in pain. Sakura cleans up the room, pushing all the miscellaneous scrolls and books away from her work space. Hashirama never really struck Sakura as the type of person who would sit indoors and read a book as opposed to going outside and enjoying the sun. Sakura had to admit, that there was much about Hashirama that she didn't know. She really still had much to learn.

About all of them, really.

As Sakura is cleaning up, she picks up a really old book, that is well used. She pauses, looking at it. The book is kind of heavy in her hand. She runs her hand over the worn leather bound cover.

"It's my brother's favorite book," Tobirama says. He looks over at her from his brother's side, one hand pressed lightly against Hashirama's shoulder, almost as if he's hoping his big brother will feel his presence and absorb his warmth for comfort. Sakura can see the lines forming between Hashirama's eyes from the pain smooth out a bit at his brother's comfort. He's still in pain, but it's almost like subconsciously Hashirama is remembering who he has to be strong for.

Sakura looks down at it for a moment, seeing that the book is well used, but is also well cared for. Sakura stands up, walking over to the desk in the corner and gently lays it down there, out of respect for the founder of her village. It was when she slowly, delicately put the precious book down that she realized how dirty traveling in the rain has made her.

"Oh," Sakura says, looking around the room. "Can someone grab me soap to wash my hands with and water too? I'm messier than I thought." One of the other people in the room stands up and runs from the room. Sakura calls after them, "Thank you!"

"Normally," Sakura says, looking over at Madara and Tobirama, "I would advise being away from the patient so that I can work in peace, but this is a slightly different situation. He's going to really need you guys here by his side. He is..." Sakura hesitates for a moment. "He is in a lot of pain right now. He needs to have those that he loves and trusts close by to keep him strong. Okay?"

Madara and Tobirama nod slowly, both glancing down at Hashirama, who is breathing heavily, eyes squeezed shut. Tobirama's hand on his shoulder squeezes tightly and Madara's back stiffens.

"Stay strong, Hashirama," Madara says slowly, his voice even and strong. Hashirama lets out a slow, pained breath but still doesn't wake.

Once Aya and Salma return with everything, including someone else who was willing to help. It was Kana Uchiha. She just lowered her head a bit when Sakura's eyes flicker over to her, submissively and Sakura decided that she didn't care enough to make a stink one way or the other. She was someone who could help Hashirama and that was all that mattered. Sakura wasn't going to make a big scene about this and by the look that Kana sent his way, she could tell that the Uchiha woman wasn't going to make one either.

That suited both of them just fine.

Sakura begins to sort everything out, telling Salma what sort of recipe she needed to make - since she is the best at that - before telling everyone else what they needed to do. Once everyone knew what they were to be doing - even Madara and Tobirama had a job. They would hold him down so that he couldn't struggle during the procedure. Just hearing that made both of them literally lose all of the little color in their faces, but they didn't complain, if it saved Hashirama they wouldn't stop her - Sakura made her way over to Hashirama and sits down next to him, leaning down on one arm to be near eye level with the whimpering young lord.

Sakura puts her hand on his cheek after pushing his hair from his sweaty face, not minding in the slightest. She gives his cheek a little pat to wake him up. At first it did nothing but after she moved her hand to his shoulder and gave it a real shake, not too bad though, it was enough to wake him up.

His eyes are wet and only open a crack, the crease between his eyes is deep. His lips move slightly, but nothing more than a low groan comes out. Sakura gives him a brief moment to start to wake up. Once his dark eyes slide toward Sakura she offers a little smile.

"Hashirama-sama," Sakura says slowly, "can you hear me? Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Hashirama nods slowly. He blinks a few times slowly saying, softly, "I'm so happy to see you, Sakura-chan. I've missed you..."

Sakura smiles, she can't help herself. "I've missed you too," Sakura says softly. She pats his shoulder a bit. "I've going to help you now, okay? I need you to listen closely to me. Are you lucid enough to understand?"

Hashirama nods slightly. "I am."

Sakura brings her hand back to his cheek, her smile fading. "There is a strong infection in your lower abdomen. I'm going to have to remove it. I'm going to make two incisions." She pulls her hand away from his cheek and brings it down to the side of his abdomen where he's laying on to the other side. "Here and here. I'm going to be using fluid to collect the infection and remove it from your body. In doing so, it my brush up against some of your organs. Namely your small intestine and stomach, which luckily for you, happens to be littered with stress induced ulcers."

Hashirama doesn't respond, and Sakura's not surprised by it. It's easier to pretend there is nothing going on, despite the pain. Sakura's not going to push it now, but that doesn't mean she's going to let it go permanently. But for now at least, she can.

Sakura straightens up, quickly reaching over to grab one of the small bowls that she had one of the other women make separately from Salma's recipe. "Alright, Hashirama-sama, I need you to sit up a bit so that you can drink this. Could you help me, Tobirama-sama? Not too much but enough that he doesn't just choke on it."

Tobirama, who was just sitting behind Hashirama, nods and scoots forward a bit, putting his hands on Hashirama's shoulders to help him sit up a bit. Hashirama groans a bit, but doesn't complain. Sakura puts the bowl to his lips and tips it up a bit so that he can drink. Sakura knows that it's a bit repulsive, knowing the herbs that they had to use, but he doesn't stop until it's all gone.

"It'll act as a mild sedative, hopefully it'll numb you a bit for what is to come, but I can't give you any more than that. I'm sorry," Sakura says genuinely. She looks away, wishing there was something that she could do to help make him feel better, but she couldn't do anything other than remove that infection from his belly and figure out how it got there in the first place.

Tobirama lowers Hashirama back against his bed, after helping Sakura remove the top part of his kimono, which meant shifting on Hashirama's part which meant pain. But Hashirama grits his teeth and bore it until he could lay on his side again. For some reason it hurt slightly less on that side.

Sakura grabs a scalpel and the alcohol, using it to sterilize the metal before leaning close to the future First Hokage and gives him a small cut on his lower abdominal and sits back onto her feet to watch as the wound seals closed in a matter of moments. "Fuck," Sakura mutters.

"What?" Tobirama says, looking between Hashirama and Sakura. Hashirama blinks tiredly.

"Chakra..." Hashirama slurs softly.

Sakura nods. "Lord Hashirama's impressive healing chakra is at it again. I won't be able to perform the procedure if we can't get his chakra pacified, while it's going on." She licks her lips for a moment, considering her options.

"What do we do?" Tobirama asks, voice slightly strained.

"How about a seal?" Madara asks. When Sakura and Tobirama look over at him, he explains, "Something to seal up his chakra just for the procedure. Can that be done?"

Hashirama nods, but Tobirama frowns. "That shouldn't be-" he starts but Sakura waves her hands around to get him to look at her.

"Look, whatever the seal is really used for; prisoners, criminals, whatever, it doesn't matter," Sakura says simply, looking into Tobirama's red eyes. "I need you to understand me right now, Tobirama-sama, Hashirama-sama will not survive until nightfall if this continues. It is because of his healing chakra that he has made it this long. He will not last until dark. It doesn't matter what the original reason this seal was made for, just make it temporary, use regular ink, we'll just have to be careful not to smear it. He needs it now."

Tobirama's lips press tightly together, mentally conflicted.

"What's the difference between the inks?" Aya asks. "Temporary? Regular? I don't get it..."

"Because it's not using chakra infused ink it's not very powerful," Madara says simply. "Hashirama's chakra could still come out, but it would seriously hamper it. Plus, he's in no condition to be using his chakra right now anyway."

Sakura nods slowly in agreement. "Yes, so we don't need it completely sealed away but we need it hampered enough so that I can work in peace. But without Hashirama's chakra healing some of the internal damage a bit at a time, it's going to accelerate his degeneration. We are going to have to move fast. So, as soon as you're done, Tobirama-sama..."

Tobirama swallows his protest and nods, looking over at Hashirama's desk, asking one of the other Senju women to grab the ink there. She does and he quickly draws up the seal onto his big brother's shoulder, hovering his hand over it and looking at Sakura. "Are you ready?" Sakura nods, bringing the scalpel down to Hashirama's abdomen, ready to cut. Sakura pauses a moment, reaching out and grabbing a clean rag, ball it up and brings it over to his mouth, giving him a sad expression.

Hashirama offers a tiny, understanding smile, opening his mouth and accepting the rag being put in there.

"Ready," Sakura says, voice tired. The whole room is filled with a tense silence as Tobirama's hand glows blue as his chakra seeps into the ink, activating the seal. Hashirama flinches, letting out a low groan in pain, slightly curling in on himself before straightening out. Once he stopped moving, Sakura started. She quickly did the two incisions, happy that they didn't start to close up right away and reached out to the first bowl, sticking her hand into the cool remedy.

Sakura brings her left hand to the lower incision and her right one to the upper incision. She sends the remedy into the bottom one and grabs hold of it with the top, pulling it through his body, grabbing as much of the infection she can. Hashirama squeezes his eyes shut, the tips of his long lashes are wet. He doesn't make any noise though. As Sakura works, she can see Tobirama teetering between wanting to stop her from hurting his brother, and just leaving the room so he doesn't want to see it.

But he stays. Hashirama is his big brother. Hashirama wouldn't leave if Tobirama was in his place. So Tobirama stays.

The liquid going into Hashirama's body is a light green and comes out a mixture of brown, green and red. He's bleeding internally now, without his chakra healing him. Sakura swallows thickly, trying to stay focused. Everyone remains quiet, yet she can feel the room shifting closer. Sakura brings in the next batch of medicine, doing the same process as before, she must have brushed some of the ulcers because Hashirama spasms in pain, whining in pain.

Tobirama, Madara and Kana - who was at Hashirama's feet - reach out and grab hold of him and hold him still. Tobirama is careful not to touch the seal on his shoulder. The building around them creaks and groans. Sakura wanted to pause and see what was going on, but knew that she didn't have a moment to waste. She just had to ignore the creaking and groaning of the building around her and how everyone else was looking around with eyes blown wide. Sakura could have sworn she heard Madara say Hashirama's name, but Hashirama couldn't hear, he was in too much pain to be coherent enough to respond.

"Aya," Sakura says, not stopping her mechanical movements of pulling the infection out of Hashirama's body.

"Yes ma'am?" Aya says, voice laced with worry.

"Come over here by his head and start healing the ulcers in his stomach and intestines," Sakura says.

"Shit," Aya mutters, racing over to Sakura's side. She brings her hands down his stomach at the odd angle that she's at and forces her chakra into her hands.

It was like a well oiled machine. Sakura would remove the infection into an empty bowl, then grab another handful of the remedy and continue the cycle all the while Aya is healing the ulcers, Kana is helping hold down a practically flailing Hashirama along with Madara and Tobirama, Salma is making more of the remedy, another woman - Uchiha - is removing the bowls and cleaning them before returning them for Salma, another woman - this one Senju - is wiping Sakura's brow and keeping her short hair from her eyes while the final woman is running back and forth with more herbs when they start to run low.

In the back of her mind, Sakura noticed something in the bowl that struck her as odd but she didn't have the time to stop and examine it. She had to wait until Hashirama was out of danger before she could stop and take a look at it. She makes a mental note before continuing to work.

Finally, Hashirama stops thrashing about in pain and looks up at Sakura through water brown eyes as she pulls the last of the infection from his body, pausing only to check Aya's work, healing particularly smaller ulcers, making sure all of the infection and closing up the two incisions before she finally removes the rag from Hashirama's mouth.

Everyone in the room settles back, letting out sighs of relief now that it was finally over.

"How do you feel?" Sakura asks once the rag is out of Hashirama's mouth, being the only one not to have settled back.

"I'm sorry," Hashirama rasps.

Sakura blinks in confusion, raising her head for the first time since she started the operation only for her heart to plummet into hell. All of the wood making up the ceiling is removed from place, bent and made sharp pointed right at Sakura's head from all directions. She could barely move without hitting one of them with her head. Sakura's eyes widen into the size of dinner plates.

"Shit," Sakura murmurs, repeating Aya from earlier. She looks around at all of the spear-like pieces of wood ready to skewer her. She can see pieces of wood littering the floor and it's at that moment she notices that Madara is standing with his gunbai fan in his right hand. It was clenched in a way where he was able to strike out with it, presumably to destroy the wood spikes before the pain stopped.

Sakura looks at Madara for a moment. "Thank you." He nods slowly, sending his fan away. She looks down at Hashirama. He looks so pale and tired, but thankfully the danger has passed for now. His breathing is deep and labored as he frolics between consciousness and unconsciousness.

Sakura laughs under her breath.

"What?" Tobirama asks, rubbing his forehead, looking like he aged twenty years since they came into the room. After a pause, he reaches forward and wipes the ink seal off of his brother's arm. Hashirama's chakra floods back into his body more securely than before and starts to heal the damage.

The surge gave Hashirama a bit of strength and he opens his eyes, looking around blearily. "I'm sorry, Sakura-chan..." he says softly. He blinks a few times, trying to clear his vision. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

Sakura shook her head. "No, Madara-sama kept me perfectly safe. No worries, alright?" Hashirama doesn't seem assuaged by her words, but rightfully decides that now probably isn't the time to argue.

Hashirama puts his hands together, interlacing his fingers and all of the wood moves back into place, seamlessly. Sakura lets out a little breath, realizing that the people she didn't recognize in the room earlier when she first arrived was gone. They must have slipped away shortly after she arrived and she just didn't even notice.

"How do you feel?" Sakura asks again, looking back to Hashirama.

"Tired," Hashirama admits, letting his hands settle onto his toned stomach as he lays down flat on his back. "But I feel a lot better. Thank you, Sakura. You saved me."

Sakura smiles, not denying him, before her smile fades. "No matter how hard I try. I just can't figure out what happened. That infection was there for a reason. It didn't magically appear and Madara-sama said that you haven't been training in the last few days so it couldn't have been an injury." Sakura cups her chin and frowns as the other girls clean the room around them, removing all the bowls and herbs and rags.

"Could it be the ulcers on his stomach and intestines?" Aya asks, tilting her head to the side.

Sakura shakes her head. "No. Well, not all of it. It would explain the blood but not the vomiting and that infection was watery and really bad. Unless you've been dealing with these abdominal pains for a few days prior to your collapse...?" She says looking at Hashirama.

"I wasn't," Hashirama says, sitting up slowly, trying to keep himself awake. He tentatively touches his side, sighing in relief when he didn't feel any pain. "I was just tired before and after you left it all went down hill in what felt like hours."

Sakura lets out a slow sigh, wracking her brain.

"Could it have been some kind of leakage from his intestines?" Salma asks, sitting next to Sakura, opposite of Aya.

"No..." Sakura says slowly, not remembering seeing any other red flags from his intestines other than the ulcers.

"Perhaps another organ?" Kana says, picking up a bucket of water.

"What?" Sakura says, looking up at the dark haired woman.

She freezes, as if realizing that she spoke out loud. She turns slightly to look over at Sakura. "No, nothing. I apologize..."

Sakura waves her hand around dismissively. "No," Sakura says, "I didn't hear you. What did you say?"

Kana hesitates, looking over at Madara, who is staring at her stonily, as if warning her to be on her best behavior. She looks over at Sakura slowly. "I said... it could have been another organ. Something around there..."

"But what, though?" Aya asks, running her hand through her mid-back length black hair that's usually pulled up into a knot on the top of her head is let down to be redone.

Sakura remembers something. "Oh wait!" She calls out to one of the woman who were about to run out the last bit of infectious bowls. "Bring that over. I thought I saw something while I removing it from Hashirama-sama." The healer brings it over carefully, giving it to Sakura. The pink haired time traveler looks into the darkened liquid, spotting something floating in it.

Sakura reaches into her pouch and pulls out tweezers and plucks the little thing out of the gunk and lays the bowl aside and cleans the little thing off with one of the clothes and stares in shock. Everyone leans forward to inspect what sat on the cloth on Sakura's palm.

"What is that?" Salma asks, green eyes wide.

"Is that flesh?" Aya asks, her voice raising three octaves.

"Yes," Sakura says, light green eyes wide.

"From what?" Madara asks incredulously, shaking his head.

"His appendix," Sakura says, shaking her own head. "I can't believe I didn't even notice that he was missing his appendix. It's a classical case. I should have noticed right away." Sakura wraps up the flesh in the cloth and lays it to the side for a moment before reaching out to Hashirama. "How in the world could I have missed that?" She sends her chakra into his body. "I mean, you would think I'd notice that he was missing an entire organ but... no?"

"What's wrong?" Tobirama asks, red eyes tired and worried.

Sakura's eyebrows pull together tightly. "What the hell? He still has his appendix."

Salma and Aya both share identical looks of confusion. Salma asks, softly, "How is that even possible?"

Aya gasps loudly, making Sakura, Hashirama and Tobirama - who is wound up like none other - jump at the sudden noise. "He has two appendix?" She asks loudly, black eyes wide. Sakura frowns at her apprentice, reaching out and flicking the girl on the forehead. "Ow, sensei!"

"No, baka," Sakura says, frowning before turning her attention back to Hashirama's toned abdominals. "How did that..." She blinks a few times before letting out a bark of a laugh, surprising everyone in the room. "No! No fucking way!" Sakura pulls her hands away and grabs the rag with the piece of flesh. "No way in the world. Here, send your chakra into this little baby for me." Sakura offers the little piece of flesh to Hashirama.

After a quick look at Sakura's face to see if she was seriously, to see that she just might be slightly insane, he hovers his hand over the flesh and sends his chakra into it until Sakura says stop. She pulls the rag back to herself, staring intently at the piece of flash with everyone else pressing closely to watch, to everyone's amazement, the piece of flesh grow and grow and take shape until it's a small organ in the palm of Sakura's hand.

"What the hell just happened?" Madara asks, black eyes wide.

"You just watched Hashirama-sama repair an organ that was just a tiny piece of flesh. Just like he did inside his own body when his appendix ruptured. That baby went nuclear and he was able to salvage it somehow and repair it subconsciously within his own body," Sakura says a mixture of fascinated and horrified by the prospect. That would make healing him next to impossible if she never knew where the problem originated but at the exact same time Hashirama just fucking recreated an organ from a tiny shred of flesh. 

Sakura could do that in someone else with great concentration and within herself at the cost of pretty much all of her chakra. Hashirama Senju did it instinctively. His body knew that should be there and just fixed it without a fucking problem. Amazing.

Sakura laughs, looking up at Hashirama, shaking her head. "What the fuck are you? Some kind of medical powerhouse? Good lord. Now if you were a universal donor, we'd be unstoppable." Sakura shakes her head incredulously.

"What's that?" Aya asks.

"It's in reference to his blood type. If he had O- blood then he could have his blood transfused into anyone." Sakura waves her hand around dismissively. "Not that that really matters. I was just saying. Alright, get a warm bath run, get a change of clothes prepared along with bedding and lets get this finished up. Salma," Sakura hands the brown haired girl the rag, "you and Aya get this little appendix, along with the rest of those bowls of infection and appendix flesh and burn it away from the village, make sure there is nothing left. If someone is resourceful enough they could steal Hashirama-sama's cells from that so make sure it's completely gone, understood?"

"Yes, sensei," both girls say, jumping to their feet, gathering up the rest of the bowls with Kana's help before leaving.

"Alright," Sakura turns to the sweaty brown haired man, "let's get you washed up and into clean clothes and a bed. That's where you are going to be staying for the next few days, okay? Think about leaving this room before you are completely healed and I'm going to fucking destroy you, alright?" Sakura smiles threateningly and Hashirama shrinks.

"Yes, ma'am," Hashirama says submissively.

Sakura smiles, pleased. "Excellent. Let's get you up now."

 

Once Sakura checks over Hashirama one last time to ensure that he's going to be alright, she walks over to the door, bidding him a good rest and promising to return in a few hours to check on him, Sakura closes the door softly behind her with her boots and cloak in one hand to see Tobirama waiting for her, looking out over his back yard from the hallway that stretches around the house, kind of like the Hyuga household.

"He'll be alright," Sakura says, stepping up next to him. She sits down and pulls her shoes on before sending her wet cloak away into a seal before looking up at Tobirama, to see him staring down at her from the corner of his eye. "I'll come back and check on him in a few hours. Just let him rest for now and for the next few days. He should be back to his old self in no time. I mean it, with his chakra, he could be alright tomorrow for all I know, but let's give him a few days to be certain one way or the other."

Tobirama nods slowly, having finally changed into a heavier kimono to block out the cold chill that has settled over the Land of Fire. It was still cold out and the sky was a dreary gray, but at the very least it stopped raining. Sakura had to wonder if Shikamaru and Sai made it safely to what would one day be the Valley of the End.

As soon as the thought crossed her mind, Sakura stopped.

Would it still become the Valley of the End? That was where Hashirama and Madara battled to the death. Where Hashirama supposedly killed his best friend because Madara used the Kurama to attack the Hidden Leaf after he defected.

Sakura knew that it was suppose to happen but she can't ignore the very painful fact that she has messed a lot of the past up that she shouldn't have and the possibility of Hashirama and Madara going separate ways now just doesn't seem possible, anymore. In some ways, with the Curse battling inside Madara, the chance of him leaving was always great, now with the Curse seemingly completely gone - with Izuna returned to health - has left Madara in a perpetual state of calmness. That anger and rage that once boiled within those pitch black depths is completely gone now.

Sakura just can't imagine what could happen to lead to the Valley of the End anymore. At this point, Sakura was completely alright with Madara never leaving the village, seeing as he is now. Madara isn't a bad man. He's got a stony face and a stern voice, but he's no different than Tobirama in that sense. Neither appear to be very forthcoming or show their emotions and it makes them hard to approach if one didn't know them.

But that's not the case at all. They both grew up in a time of war and mistrust, it's no wonder neither really know how to be open to people. Hashirama really is their dramatic foil. He is just a complete odd ball, in all shapes and forms.

Sakura didn't want Madara to die. She wasn't afraid of him anymore, nor did she think he was a bad guy. She was so lucky to have been given this experience to see for herself what the First saw in his childhood friend. Especially today. While everyone there was Senju, only Madara and Aya were Uchiha. Aya is a medical ninja, trained by Sakura and it was natural for her to be there. Madara was different. He was there because Hashirama was his best friend. He was going to be there to see Hashirama get better, or there for his friend's final moments.

Hashirama was Madara's best friend. There is no way he was going to be left alone.

Sakura could feel an overwhelming swell of respect in her belly for the dark haired Uchiha who was far more than anything she could have imagined.

Sakura is just glad beyond reason that Hashirama was okay. That he was going to be fine. She's going to have a tough time sleeping tonight because this has left her with much to think about, but at the very least, Hashirama will live to see another day. It was just such an odd series of events to happen right after Sakura left the Hidden Leaf.

Could it have really been just a coincidence?

Sakura's not sure what to believe in that regard. Either way, she's happy to be able to spend a bit more time in the village until Shikamaru and Sai return to get her and hopefully finally be able to tell her what the hell is going on.

"Thank you, Sakura," Tobirama says, breaking Sakura of her thoughts.

"Huh?" She looks up at him with wide green eyes. "Oh, you're welcome. Anytime."

Tobirama smiles tiredly at that, but there is a twinkle in his eyes that gives Sakura the impression that those were the precise words he was looking for. "I am truly and irrevocably glad that I met you."

Sakura's face lights up and she has to look away. "Ditto," she says, awkwardly.

"My brother would be dead right now if it weren't for you," Tobirama says, looking around his backyard. It's got to be early evening. Sakura doesn't say anything, she can't refute it. It probably would have been noticed by the Senju medical shinobi had Hashirama not completely repaired the obliterated organ before anyone had a chance to see it. Which was still completely amazing in Sakura's opinion. She couldn't wait to tell Tsunade about it.

"I'm glad that I could help," Sakura says, offering a little smile.

Tobirama turns toward Sakura, looking down at her with mesmerizing red eyes, they are softer and more open that Sakura has ever seen them. "How can I ever thank you?" He whispers so softly, Sakura more read his lips than heard his voice.

Sakura shakes her head. "He's my friend. I didn't help him for thanks. I appreciate you saying it though. Like with Izuna-sama, the thanks is enough." She stares into his pretty eyes and can see herself reflected back. Something happens between them. It's not a physical thing, but it almost felt like electricity passed between the two of them. The hairs on Sakura's arms, legs and the back of her neck stand on end, but that could also be because she wasn't wearing proper clothing for the cold, but she wasn't sure.

Tobirama blinks slowly, his breaths are like small puffy clouds around his mouth. "I will never forget this moment," he says, voice deep.

What moment? The moment she saved Hashirama - holy fucking shit she just saved her fucking Hokage! - or this moment. The one between the two of them? She opens her mouth about to ask, when she hears something step in front of them.

Sakura and Tobirama turn to see Akamaru sitting on the grass directly in front of them, lazily, panting hard. His tail wags when they look at him.

"Oh, shit!" Sakura gasps, jumping up. "I am so sorry, Akamaru, I completely forgot that you were following after us!" She pauses, looking up at the sky. "Wait, what took you so long?"

It's at that moment that a bunch of Senju children with two Uchiha, an Akimichi and two Yamanaka round the corner, into Hashirama and Tobirama's back yard. All their eyes lock onto Akamaru.

"Come on, puppy!" One of the Senju girls call out, patting her thighs. "Let's play some more!"

Akamaru barks happily but falls to his side and rolls onto his back, tail wagging. Sakura sits back down next to Tobirama, laughing.

"Good boy, Akamaru, play with the village children!"


	21. Remembrance

Sakura and Tobirama sit in silence for almost an hour, watching the kids play around with Akamaru. The dog was tired, and laid down for most of it, but was very receptive to the kids, letting them jump all around him and over him. His tail didn't stop wagging for more than a couple of minutes. He even licked Tobirama's hand when the man retrieved a bowl of water for the large dog after Sakura off-handedly mentioned that Akamaru was panting a lot. Sakura couldn't help but grin broadly up at Tobirama for his small, kind act.

There was a tiny bit of hesitation from Tobirama when he approached Akamaru, but he probably sensed Akamaru's entire demeanor was different than before. He wasn't going to be biting anyone, especially surrounded by so many kids. Akamaru really was a good boy. Sakura was happy that Kiba was such a good master and couldn't wait to tell him about how good Akamaru was next time she sees him.

"Thank you for doing that," Sakura had said when Tobirama returned to her side while Akamaru drank greedily from the water bowl, pausing only to lick the hand of one of the Yamanaka kids when they reached out to pet his head.

Once refreshed, Akamaru went back to playing with the kids. Sakura just sat there next to Tobirama, taking a moment to just watch them. There is just something about the sound of children's laughter that just eased Sakura's nerves. Akamaru was having fun playing with the kids. Sakura was just enjoying the sounds, even though it was sort of an icky day out, but at least the kids were out and having fun while it was okay out.

Thankfully the storm that was over them seems to have cleared up some.

"Sakura," Tobirama says, catching Sakura's attention, pulling her eyes away from the kids and Akamaru to look up at the one day Second Hokage.

"Hm?" Sakura looks up at him.

"I've been thinking," Tobirama says, red eyes drawing over to her, "was the alcohol just for sterilization for the scalpel? You kept it close but then left in Hashirama's room after you left. Is there a reason for that?"

Sakura blinks a few times, confused by his words before perking in surprise. "Oh! Yeah, do you think he's still awake in there?" She stands up, kicking off her shoes again and turning toward Hashirama's bedroom door.

"He's not moving around," Tobirama says, "but his chakra hasn't settled so I don't think that he's asleep."

Sakura waves her hand for Tobirama to follow as she steps outside Hashirama's door. She brings her hand up and knocks on the door, hearing Hashirama quietly call out to her. Sakura couldn't really hear what he said but assumed it was okay to just walk in. Thankfully it was, Hashirama was just sitting up in his bed with a familiar worn out book sitting on his lap.

"Lord Hashirama?" Sakura asks, peaking her head further into the room.

Hashirama looks up at her with wide, dark brown eyes. "Sakura-chan? Yes? What is it?" He closes the book without marking the page before setting it aside.

"May we come in?" Sakura asks, opening the door a bit to show Tobirama.

Hashirama nods, gesturing to the space around him. "Please."

Sakura steps in, leaving the door open for Tobirama to close behind them. She walks into the room hearing Tobirama softly slide the door shut behind her before she lowers to the ground next to Hashirama, immediately locating the bottle of alcohol she left behind and holding it up to Hashirama with a playful smile. "I had the girls bring this to me so that I could sterilize the wounds, but I also thought that you would probably need a swig or two after the few days you just had. Or months."

Hashirama barks out a laugh as Tobirama settles on his other side. Tobirama smiles faintly.

Sakura jiggles the bottle around a bit, waggling her eyebrows. "Tobirama-sama reminded me that I forgot to give you a sip. Great job for being a trooper for this entire thing. I'm proud."

"Even though I almost killed you with the ceiling?" Hashirama asks, taking the bottle. His words are playful, but there is genuine sadness in his eyes. He would never have forgiven himself if Sakura had gotten hurt trying to help him.

"That's the best part," Sakura says easily. "Because that's totally not how I'm going to tell the story. It's going to be something like, I was healing your tattered, broken body all the while your natural self-preservation instincts were trying to kill me. I managed to battle off the mokuton like a boss before fixing you completely. Trust me, the tale I weave is going to be epic." Sakura winks playfully.

Hashirama lets out a tired, but amused laugh. "What about Madara?"

"Who?" Sakura asks jokingly right as Hashirama took a swig of the alcohol. He coughs, letting out a loud laugh. Sakura waves her hand around. "I'm kidding! Don't choke!"

Hashirama passes the bottle to Tobirama who honestly looked like he needed it, and grins at Sakura as Tobirama takes a hearty drink to settle his nerves, but not enough to hamper his sensing before offering it to Sakura.

She immediately starts to shake her head. "Oh no, I'm good. I'm not much of a drinker..."

"Come now, Sakura-chan," Hashirama says, smiling boyishly, "just a sip is fine. I think you've earned it."

Sakura shakes her head. Her Hokage was promoting underage drinking. Well, technically, it's not underage in this time. It isn't really in Sakura's time either. Shinobi can start drinking when they become shinobi. It's because they are seen as adults. If you're old enough to drink, then you are old enough to drink. It's not against the law for Sakura to drink, but when she became a shinobi, it was frowned upon for them to drink while still so young. But it's all a matter of preference, Sakura supposes.

Sakura could remember the first time she drank. It wasn't with her parents, but with Tsunade, which shouldn't be all that surprising, actually. But it was when Sakura was fourteen and it wasn't a lot, but Tsunade wanted to celebrate Sakura becoming a chunin. That was the first time Tsunade had said that she was proud of Sakura and it made all of the pain and agony that Sakura went through under the woman's cruel thumb worth it. Tsunade was a tough but fair master and she was lucky to have her.

Sakura will never not be thankful for her master.

"Okay," Sakura relented, reaching across Hashirama's legs to take the bottle, feeling nastolgic. Sakura threw her head back and took a swig coughing almost immediately after it hit the back of her throat but she refused to spit it up and swallowed down the bitter liquid, shivering and coughing as she handed the half full bottle back to an amused Hashirama.

"You are not lady-like at all!" Hashirama laughs.

"Ow, hey!" Sakura wheezes, wiping tears from her eyes. "That burned all the way down," she complained, shivering again. "Oh, but it did clear up my nose."

"It's not an insult," Hashirama says, laughing, then reiterates, "or, at least, it's not meant to be. I love that about you, Sakura-chan. I love your fire. I love that I can't expect anything from you, really. You are full of surprises and I thoroughly enjoy it."

Sakura blushes a bit. "Well," she wheezes, then clears her throat, wiping the last of her tears away, "I thank you for liking my individuality. But alas, on that note I need to get back to my house and sleep. I'm tired and you need to rest too. I'll be back sometime tonight to check on you, so rest up." Sakura climbs to her feet and walks to the door.

"Thank you again," Tobirama says, putting his balled up hands on his thighs and bowing as much as he can while sitting. Hashirama tilts his head down as well.

"Yes, thank you, Sakura-chan."

Sakura shakes her head, waving her hands around embarrassed. "Please don't bow, my lords. Really, it was my pleasure! Rest up now. You both look like hell." She offers them a Cheshire smile before slipping out of the room, into her boots and saves Akamaru from the rambunctious children before returning to a now empty home, curling up with a panty, hot Akamaru and falling to sleep in moments.

 

Sakura steps out into the hot, afternoon sun after having spent the entire night at the hospital. She brings up a hand to shield her eyes from the unforgiving sun, looking around the bustling Hidden Leaf. Sakura looks around for a moment, dazed by all of the activity. The night was slow and all of her patients slept peacefully throughout the night - which was both wonderful and rare.

Sakura turns toward home and heads that way, weaving through the crowd. Sakura takes the time to just enjoy the activity, happy to finally be home again and back into the groove of things. People who see her in the streets stop and wave, calling out to her to ask how she's doing and how work was. Since she's returned she's been revered as one of the heroes. Along with the rest of her team. The group that took down the Rabbit Goddess.

The pink haired medic still wasn't used to all of the attention. Sometimes she's afraid that she will wake up on the battlefield and all of this would have been a dream. More times than not Sakura finds herself back there. Back in those camps, wrist deep in dying shinobi; friends, family, allies. Back on the front line fighting against Madara Uchiha and Obito and even Kaguya herself.

Sakura shivers in fear. She could go the entire rest of her life never thinking about Madara Uchiha again. Even Obito turned good at the end. While in some degrees, Sakura can sympathize with Madara's plight, she could never see how someone as great and magnificent at the First could have once loved a man like that. She didn't even know what would have to take place for something like that to be possible.

But thankfully, Sakura didn't have to know. All of that was behind her now.

Sakura made it home easily enough. Her parents were in the living room talking about one of her mom's friends that she met up with at the market. Even though Sakura was tired and just wanted to go to bed for the next year and a half, she sat down next to her dad and listened to her mother rant on and on about one thing or another for the better part of an hour, occasionally throwing in her own two cents before finally bidding goodnight and heading upstairs after kissing both of her parents cheeks.

After having a small taste of what war was really about, Sakura has learned to let a lot more things go than she normally would have. Her mother's ranting and raving, which was once a source of great annoyance and ire for the pink haired girl, was something she looked forward to now that she was home and safe with her family. She would take her mother's insistent complaining over not having her at all any day. Even the sparse moments between her mother's ranting, her father would look over at her and smile lovingly.

Her father was a very passive man without much of a backbone, but Sakura is starting to understand that he's like that to fit her mother's abrasive personality. Something like that is the only way their relationship would work. Her parents wouldn't be able to be together like they are today without one of them being a more passive personality.

And that was her father.

Sakura was happy that her father didn't seem to mind. He loved her mother and was willing to allow her to be the way she was without question. Sakura aspired to be in a relationship like that. She aspired to find that person in her life. She thought that it would be Sasuke whom she would spend the rest of her life with but since he left the Leaf again, she's been wondering if perhaps she's wrong.

And that's ignoring what's going on with Sai. Now that's an entirely different thing that she still hasn't been able to wrap her mind around. It shouldn't be this hard, since she's always had this aching suspicion since they first met, but still, it was strange to get some form of confirmation.

Sakura closed the door to her room and fell onto her bed, scrambling into a comfortable position before curling up on her side, closing her eyes. Her eyelids felt like they were each holding up one of Lee's weights.

Sakura was almost completely asleep when something immediately pulled her from her drowsiness and into complete awareness. She shoots up in her bed and looks around her room, wondering what it could have been that awoke her. Her eyes narrowed but unable to figure out what it was. Once her racing heart began to settle down once more, sleep began to tuck at the back of her mind.

She sank back into her bed, letting her eyes slip closed before she felt it again. Sakura jumps to her feet, feeling it stronger than ever and realizing what it was immediately.

"Oh no," Sakura gasps, green eyes widening. Someone was casting a genjutsu around her house.

And the village.

 

Sakura opens her eyes, heart racing, but her awakening was calm. She takes a moment to stare at the ceiling and regain her bearings. She wasn't in the Hidden Leaf anymore - well, she was just not in her own time. Sakura took a moment to stare out at the moonlight that filters in through the window and bathed Sakura in it's light.

Sakura looks over at Akamaru as her heart rate slows down. He whimpers softly in his sleep, monstrous paws twitching one way and the other as he dreams. Sakura reaches out and runs her fingers through his thick, white fur, hoping that it sooths the big dog. And it does after a moment, his whimpering quiets sown and he begins to relax again.

She pushes herself up and stretches her hands above her head, letting all of her vertebrae crack and stretch before she finally relaxes again and stands up. Sakura pauses for a moment, pulling out Ino's purple brush, using it to get rid of her bedhead before putting it back into her pouch. She walks over to the door, peaking down at Akamaru to make sure that he doesn't wake up before slipping out and softly sliding the door shut behind her. Thankfully it's not too late so she's slip out for a few minutes, see how Hashirama is doing before coming back to bed. Akamaru won't even know she's gone.

Sakura makes it to Hashirama's and Tobirama's house in record time, seeing the house was completely dark inside. Sakura worried for a moment if perhaps it was insane to check on Hashirama at this time, but he was close to death and she didn't want to take any chances. But she didn't want to just go walking into two of her founders and friends home without their permission.

After a moment of debate, Sakura lightly lets her chakra flare a bit, hoping that would be enough to wake Tobirama and not the entire village. She's kind of lucky she hasn't run into a Senju patrol and been shanked for lurking around outside their clan leader's home.

Thankfully, Sakura wasn't left with her thoughts for long, the front door opens up and Tobirama sticks his head out, locating her immediately.

"Sakura..?" Tobirama says softly, running his hand up and down his face for a moment to force away the sleepiness before opening the door. "You are here to check on Hashirama?"

Sakura nods, relieved. She kicks her shoes off at the door and follows the future Second Hokage deeper into his home to just outside of Hashirama's room. Sakura lightly knocks on the door until she hears a groggy voice call out to them. It wasn't exactly understandable, but Sakura got the gist of it and opens the door slowly. She peaks her head in to see Hashirama half sitting up in his bed, looking around lazily.

"Sorry to wake you, Hashirama-sama," Sakura says, walking into the room. She grabs the closest candle and digs around in her pockets for a match. Once she sits down at his side, lights the candle so that they can see each other in the dim light she proceeds to check him over. Even though he was half asleep through the entire thing, he listened to everything she said and Sakura was convinced that he was going to be fine. Without saying much else, she let Hashirama lay back down and leaves the room.

Throughout the entire check up, Hashirama's head bobbed up and down as he slipped between conscious and unconscious. He would mumble incoherently whenever Sakura spoke to him, but she didn't mind. He's had a long past few days and deserved to rest. So once she was done she left the room without wasting another moment, sure that Hashirama fell back to sleep almost immediately after his head touched his pillow.

"How is he?" Tobirama asks, running his fingers through messy white hair from where he waited for her out in the hall.

Sakura laughs. "He's going to be fine. He's tired, but great considering that he was nearly dead a few hours ago. I still want him to rest throughout the night and all of tomorrow but he might be well enough to get up and pick up on his daily routine again. Not completely since I still want him to rest, but since he's not a normal case. Because of how powerful the healing element in his chakra is, he's healing a hell of a lot faster than you or I would but I just want to be careful."

Tobirama nods. "I appreciate that."

Sakura reaches out and pats his shoulder. "It's fine. I'm sorry about waking you up so late. I just want to make sure that he's okay."

Tobirama rubs his face, rolling his shoulders back a bit before leaning against one of the supports for the building. "I thank you for that, Sakura. So he's going to be okay now?"

Sakura nods. "Yes. Just because he's a special case, I can't predict exactly how he's going to react because of who he is and how he's different from other people. But I believe these next few days should be taken easily, even if he feels well enough to start doing his daily routine again, just until I'm certain that he's going to be completely okay."

"I agree completely," Tobirama says, crossing his arms over his chest. "We'll try and give him some time to relax and heal up."

"Good idea," Sakura says. "I know that he's been really stressed for the past few months, giving him and yourselves, some time to just sit back and relax, would do all of you some good. And don't try and give me some lame excuse about feeling fine," Sakura says when the future Second opens his mouth to protest. "I can see the dark circles under your eyes, all of yours. You are all hard working and dedicated and I admire that about you all completely, but take a moment to really think about yourselves and your health. Even though you can't all take a break at once, you should trust one another and take a break every once and a while. Just so that you can remain in tip top shape for your village."

Tobirama's lips seal closed and he nods minutely. "I understand," Tobirama says slowly, after a long pause. "I understand that we are all pushing ourselves, it just... kind of surprised me that Hashirama would be the first to fall."

Sakura presses her lips together. "I think that there is a lot of factors that has lead to Hashirama-sama's collapse. But, I also believe that you all should take some time to really relax and find your center again whenever you can, simply because this beautiful village can't be built on the foundation you want to without all of you working together."

Tobirama nods. "I understand," he says again.

Sakura runs her fingers through her short pink hair before offering up a little smile. "Well, I'm not here to tell you what to do. I'm here to just make sure my friend is alright. Just let me know at any point if something goes wrong. I'll come back again around noon tomorrow to see him."

Tobirama nods, letting his arms drop as he leads her back to the front of the house. Once she's at the road again that will lead to her home, he asks, quietly, "Do you want me to walk you home?" Sakura's sure any other night, he probably would have walked her home, but he looks like he's ready to collapse on his feet and just needed to sleep.

Sakura shakes her head, reaching out and running her fingers through his light, silky locks. "Don't worry. Go back to bed. Goodnight."

Tobriama looks up at the clouds covering the moon above them. "Goodnight, Sakura. Thank you again. I will see you tomorrow." His red eyes lower to Sakura. He blinks slowly looking like he wanted to say something, but then decides not to. But he does stand outside and watches her back until she's out of his view before disappearing back into his home.

 

"Hey, guys," Sakura says, stepping up next to Madara and Izuna a few days later. She just got away from Akamaru and a bunch of the village children which seems to be his distraction to find Izuna and Madara in the forest. Izuna was sitting a few feet in front of Madara, relaxing from what appeared to of been meditating.

"Sakura," Izuna says, waving his hand in greeting. "My brother told me that you were back. You weren't gone for long, were you?" He smiles boyishly.

Sakura rolls her eyes. "Yes, yes. The heartfelt goodbye that we shared was ruined by my not-so-epic, not-so-delayed return. I know. But I'm curious about something, do you two have a moment for potentially a silly question?"

Madara, who's arms were crossed and he was leaning on one hip, nods for her to continue. "Go ahead."

Sakura takes a moment to consider before sitting down on the ground next to Izuna. "Okay, so I know a lot about genjutsu, it's one of the few skills outside of medical ninjutsu that I have, and I sort of know the answer to this, but I would like some clarification from someone more experienced than I am in this regard if you two don't mind."

"What's up?" Izuna asks, pulling his knees up and resting his left elbow on his left knee, using that hand to run through his messy dark blue hair, reminiscent of Sasuke's hair color.

"Is it possible to cast a genjutsu over an entire village? Like, let's use the capital for just an example, or at least a city the size of the capital. How difficult would it be to cast a genjutsu of that magnitude over a village that size?" Sakura looks between the two brothers.

Izuna squints up at the sky while Madara frowns to himself, deeply considering her questions, which she appreciates.

"It would depend, honestly," Madara says slowly. "I can't say for certain one way or another, seeing as I have never performed a genjutsu that large before, but I can say, theoretically, it's possible. I would imagine the person who did this would have to be the most powerful in the world, or there would have to be a bunch of them that work very well together. It would have to be a seamless casting on all parts. If someone skilled with genjutsu was inside the village, then those casting the genjutsu would have to be very careful to have it done all at the same time as to not alert those sensitive to genjutsu."

Izuna nods. "Yeah. If they aren't careful and plan out accordingly, I can imagine it going array. Genjutsu can be a really fickle and complex style of fighting and while useful in ambush and traps, I can't imagine it being used in an actual battle scenario, easily. There would have to be a real genjustu master at play, one that is very confident in their skills to be able to do it while in a battle situation."

Madara gives his little brother a small nod of agreement. "I wouldn't say it's impossible, but it certainly wouldn't be easy."

Sakura cups her chin in thought, frowning a bit in worry. That dream she had of home. She wasn't sure what to think about it. It felt so real. That had to be another memory. That had to be the beginning of the coordinated strike against all of the Hidden Villages.

"Hi, everyone!" Hashirama calls, bouncing up next to his best friend. Since he was allowed to continue with his life - aka, leaving his room - the day before, he's been positively jubilant. Sakura isn't sure if it's because he's happy to be alive, or if the time he got rest was enough to rejuvenate his seemingly endless energy supplies. He really did remind Sakura of Naruto. That kid didn't have an off button.

Tobirama steps up along side his older brother.

Izuna waves his hand around in greeting, squinting up at them, since the sun is behind the three older men in the group. Another Uchiha man steps up next to them, it wasn't someone that Sakura's ever seen, but no one reacts to his presence so Sakura just ignores it.

"Hi guys," Sakura says, also waving her hands in greeting. "How are you feeling today, Hashirama-sama?"

Hashirama is beaming. "I feel fantastic, Sakura-chan! Thank you so much for asking me!" He is practically bouncing right next to Madara, who looks slightly annoyed by his best friend's behavior but appears to prefer that over the sick and whimpering Hashirama.

Sakura laughs. "Good, I'm glad that you're feeling..." she blinks in confusion as something comes to her. A voice, whispering in the back of her mind. She could see Madara, Hashirama, Tobirama and the strange Uchiha staring at her clear as day, but then, next to them, Sakura could see someone else. She could see Naruto staring down at her. But he looks a bit different than she remembers.

Naruto's blond afro was chopped short. He's taller than what she remembers and he's grown into his face more. It's thinned out a bit and his eyes are a bit more narrowed. He looks very handsome.

It almost looks like he's right next to her, as clear as she could see him in her memory, he stood before her. His lips were moving, but no sound came out. It took Sakura a moment to realize that she had to read his lips in order to understand what he was saying. She could hear the founders calling out to her, trying to get her attention and somewhere in the corner of her vision, she could see Tobirama reaching out toward her, placing his hand on her shoulder. She could feel it, but she couldn't focus on it.

She could only stare at Naruto's lips, as he spoke and suddenly something that she never thought would come to her did.

She knew why she was here. What Shikamaru remembered. Shikamaru must have remembered the same thing Sakura is right at this very moment.

"Oh Kami..." Sakura says softly as Naruto disappears once more. "I remember..."

"What?" Izuna asks, tilting his head to the side. "Remember what?"

Sakura shakes her head slowly, blinking rapidly, trying to get her thoughts in order. "I can't believe it. It's so simple! How could I have forgotten?"

"What is it, Sakura?" Hashirama asks, brown eyes wide. He steps closer, looking concerned. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"I remembered my mission," Sakura says, green eyes looking between the four men, two sets of brothers, not caring about the other man. "I can't believe I forgot it."

The space around them grows a bit tense. Tobirama slowly lowers to his hunches right next to Sakura, eyebrows pulled together slightly, as if mentally preparing himself for what he was going to hear.

"What is it?" Tobirama asks.

"Hashirama-sama," Sakura says, looking up at the oldest of them, "I remember."

Hashirama nods very slowly, looking worried. "Sakura-chan, I don't think you should say anything more..."

"No," Sakura shakes her head. "I have to tell you. You have to know."

Hashirama looks unnerved but nods slowly, lowering down to his hunches right in front of her. "Okay..." he says slowly. "Only if you are certain..."

"I am," Sakura says. "I was sent here to protect you."

Hashirama's eyes widen. That was definitely not what he was expecting to hear. "What?"

"Did you say you weren't sent here to protect him?" Madara asks, pitch black eyes wide.

Sakura nods. "I remember now. That's why Shikamaru allowed me to return. He had to of remembered that too. My mission was to make sure that you would be okay."

Hashirama's mouth opens slightly, when someone cuts him off. Tobirama jumps to his feet, Raijin pulled immediately. Sakura, Izuna and Hashirama jump up a moment after to see Sai standing there, a few feet away from them, smiling that fake smile.

"Good job, Ugly. I'm glad you finally remembered. Better late than never, yeah?" He asks. To a regular person, it sounded kind of cruel, but Sakura could feel it. Sai was kidding, offering an olive branch. He was relaxed. It wasn't as if he had a bunch of god standing before him, prepared to kick his ass just for sneaking up on them.

"Who's that?" Izuna asks, shifting slightly behind Sakura.

"No idea..." Madara says, stepping closer to Izuna.

"Yes," Sakura says slowly to Sai, ignoring Izuna and Madara behind her, dropping her guard slightly. "But Sai, what are you doing here? What about Shikamaru? What about the meeting?"

"We had it," someone else says, walking around one of the nearby trees. She walks all the way up to Sai and then past him, stopping a few feet from Sakura.

Sakura's green eyes widen. "M-Master!"

Tsunade stands before Sakura, looking exactly as Sakura remembered. But there was a bit of darkness in her eyes that belied the war she had to face. The things that she's had to go through, losing her home once more.

"Sakura," Tsunade says, offering a little smile on her red lips, before it drops and she looks to the men around her. "Gentlemen. It's nice to meet you all. I am the Fifth Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato. I am Tsunade Senju."


	22. And She Felt

So many different thoughts and feeling swirled around in Sakura's head at that moment. All she could do was stare at the beautiful face of her Master, finally seeing the lines on her skin that she didn't originally notice when she first saw her. Not a lot, and not very noticeable, but they were there. She looked a bit older than Sakura could recall, and when her eyes dragged over to Sai, she realized that he was a bit different too. His hair was longer, but that's it.

Back to Tsuande, Sakura couldn't help the overwhelming love and happiness that swelled up in her gut at the sight of the blond haired woman. Her mentor and someone that she trusted more than most others in the world.

"Why are you here?" Sakura asks, green eyes wide. "Master, what's going on?"

"You remembered your mission," Tsunade says instead, crossing her arms under her chest, pushing up her healthy bodice. "I'm proud of you, Sakura. With all of the memory loss happening amongst the ranks, I was worried about you."

"Yes, my mission is to protect Hashirama-sama," Sakura says slowly, stepping closer to Tsunade. "But why? I'm not stronger than he is. Plus he's got Tobirama-sama, Madara-sama and even Izuna-sama here with him. Why would he need someone like me?"

Tsunade smiles. "You're right. In terms of fire power, those men have you beat, in some ways. But I'm not talking about physical brute strength. If I wanted a powerhouse with them, I'd have sent Naruto or Lee. No, I wanted you for the one thing that you could offer the Founders that that two could not."

"My... killer sense of humor?" Sakura asks blankly, not sure where she was going with this. Tsunade's smile is razor sharp, obviously not appreciative of the joke. Sakura smiles sheepishly back, feeling a little bit better when she heard Izuna snort behind her. Tsunade may not have appreciated it, but at least someone had. "Uh, just kidding."

Tsunade considers something for a moment before casting a glance over at Sai, who pulls his dark eyes over to her for a second before shrugging and returning his gaze to the person directly in front of him - Tobirama.

"Shikamaru told me that you had to return to the village because there was an incident here, right?" Tsunade says, turning her large brown eyes back over to Sakura and quirking a single, perfectly manicured eyebrow.

Sakura stares at her for a moment, green eyes locked onto Tsunade's own dark brown, trying to understand what the woman was trying to get at when it suddenly hit Sakura like a ton of bricks. Her eyes widen in a mixture of realization, horror and worry. "Wait, are you saying that the reason that Hashirama-sama collapsed was because of the people who attacked home?"

Tsunade shrugs her shoulders. "I'm not certain. At least not at this moment. I don't know what happened. Do I believe they would have begun moving this suddenly? I'm not sure. But they will be coming here one way or another. Whether it be for us," Tsunade says slowly, before nodding to the men behind Sakura, "or them. Either way, they will come."

Sakura, having completely forgot that she wasn't alone, turns to look over at Hashirama, Madara, Izuna, Tobirama and the other Uchiha with wide eyes. "I... I am sorry! This must not be making any sense to any of you."

Hashirama looks between Sakura, Sai and Tsunade, mouth opening and closing, as if trying to understand something. Izuna and Tobirama stare on, mistrustfully, not knowing what to say or to think. Madara, on the other hand, is staring directly at Tsunade.

"You're a Senju?" He asks slowly.

Tsunade nods. "Yes. Genetically," she looks over at Hashirama, "I am his granddaughter." The four founders stare at her with wide eyes.

Sakura whips around to stare at her master. "My Lady! Do you know what you are saying?"

Tsunade nods. "Yes, Sakura, I do." She looks over at the four founders. "I am genetically your granddaughter, Hashirama-sama, but I am not your granddaughter. As far as I can tell, you have not married yet, therefore have not bore my father, uncle and aunt. So, I am not your grandchild, but I am related to you by blood."

"My Lady!" Sakura says sharply, green eyes wide. "What are you doing?" What was she saying? Didn't she know that she was going to ruin everything? Why in the world would she say any of that? Konoha would never be the same at this point, right? Isn't that how messing up the past works for the future? You screw it up too much and eventually the place you left behind no longer exists?

Shouldn't Tsunade know this? What was she thinking?

"I know what I'm saying," Tsunade says simply, "but this isn't like a regular time travel story of legends or things in story books, Sakura. I was never meant to be born here anyway."

All the protests die on Sakura's lips. She stares at her master with slack jaw for a moment before mustering up the strength to croak, "What?"

"Something very vital is missing here, isn't it?" Tsunade says, doing a gesture toward where the one time Leaf Village is with a sweeping gesture. "Think, Sakura. Where is the Uzumaki?"

Sakura blinks a few times, a horrible tickle at the back of her mind distracts her. The Uzumaki? They... they did help fund the construction of the Hidden Leaf. Yes, she remembered learning about that. How could she have forgotten about them? They were one of Konoha's biggest allies until they were destroyed a little over forty years ago - for Sakura. It wouldn't have happened yet.

She looks over at Hashirama. "The Uzumaki..? Where...?"

Hashirama frowns. "The Uzumaki? They are the cousin clan of the Senju, Sakura-chan. I can't believe you know about them. As..." he glances over to Tsunade and Sai for a moment before looking back at Sakura, "As for where they are... they were wiped out by the Uchiha many years before I was even born."

Sakura's jaw drops. "What? How..? How is that even possible?" She looks back over at Tsunade, not sure she understands. "What is going on, my lady?"

Tsunade closes her eyes for a moment, collecting her thoughts before saying, quietly, "Our home is gone, Sakura. We were unable to protect it from those people that attacked us. In order to survive, we had to come here. In the act of doing so, we all got scattered across this timeline, though thankfully it's been within months of each other, maybe even a few years, but that has yet to be seen." A moment of hesitation, and then, "This isn't our past, Sakura, this is an entirely different timeline."

Sakura shakes her head slowly. "I... don't understand..."

"It was by chance that we were able to find this timeline," Tsunade says. "Naruto and Sasuke were searching other timelines and this was the one that they found that was the closest to our own. It was by chance that they returned in time to save us from the slaughter."

"And we were getting slaughtered," Sai says. "We didn't see them coming, Sakura." He turns black eyes toward her. "The only thing we could do was run." His hand curls into an angry set of fists. "It is... logical, anyway."

Sakura frowns at that. "Why was Naruto and Sasuke looking through different timelines?" She wraps her arms around herself. "What's the point?"

Tsunade shakes her head. "That doesn't matter right now. It's not the pressing issue. Right now, we have something else we as a group have to focus on, and that is where we are going to go."

Sakura blinks a few times. "Where?" It was absurd. As soon as she thought about it, she knew that what Tsunade said was true. Even though Konoha was their home, this wasn't Konoha. And now that she knows this isn't even her past, she isn't even sure what she has been freaking out over for the last few months. She couldn't ruin a future that probably won't come to be anyway.

Now Sakura felt like a complete idiot. It was like no matter what she did and said, a part of her always had to be aware that whatever she did could somehow affect her future, her home. To suddenly learn that it was all for nothing? It was a bit jarring. What she did here had no affect on her home because it wasn't connected to it, like Sakura thought it was. When Tsunade told Hashirama-sama that she was genetically his granddaughter, it affected little, if anything at all, because he wasn't her literal grandfather. Merely a version of him from a different timeline.

But that also means that Sakura can never go home.

Konoha was gone.

"What are we going to do now, then?" Sakura asks softly. Her shoulders slump a bit. The fact of the matter stays the same. They were all homeless now.

"You can stay with us," Hashirama says, surprising Sakura. She turns to look at the long brown haired clan leader with wide green eyes.

Hashirama offers a little smile. "You all need a home, right? Well, we need, and want, allies. It's not so bad. We can treat it as any other alliance. We can all be part of the village together." He smiles kindly.

Tsunade stares at the man for a moment, a small, tender smile crossing her lips. "We would greatly appreciate that," she says softly. "But I fear you would be bring more people onto your plate than perhaps you are thinking. We aren't a simple clan of a couple hundred, our numbers are in the thousands." Tsunade says simply, crossing her arms under her voluptuous bosom. "I'm aware that supplies are limited here and that would be an unexpected strain on your supplies and while I'm sure we would be able to sustain ourselves I'm not going to lie. We will outnumber you and the clans you have on your side," Tsunade says, staring deep into Hashirama's eyes.

"Hashirama," Tobirama says, speaking up for the first time. Hashirama glances over at him. "Don't be rash," Tobirama warns.

"You don't understand," Sakura says quickly, turning to look at Tobirama and Hashirama. "Tobirama-sama, I understand your hesitation and your worry, trust me, it's not unreasonable, but you have to understand something from our side," Sakura says, waiting for his red eyes to finally slide over to her, mixed feelings swimming in those depths. "Hashirama-sama founded our village, as you are now aware. Our people, even during my time... we revere him as a god."

That gets quite a few shocked looks.

"Hashirama?" Madara gasps, blinking slowly as if he wasn't sure he heard her right. "A god?"

"Not a literal god," Sakura says, quickly backtracking a bit. "His power, his legend. As much as could be managed survived even in my time. He founded our village, then founded the unification of the clans and made the world that we now live in. His stories... they aren't as exaggerated as I once thought. You, Madara-sama, Izuna-sama and Hashirama-sama are men that aren't easily matched in our eyes. To you, we are strangers," Sakura says slowly, daring to take a step closer to the mistrusting man, thankful that he didn't take a step back or warn her not to move. "But to us, you are family."

Perhaps it was a bit deceitful using words like that "family" against Tobirama-sama because it goes with Hashirama's Will of Fire, but Sakura didn't know how else to explain it. She could understand why Tobirama was worried about letting so many strange people around his family, especially days after admitting to her that he wasn't the type of person to trust easily, but she needed him to understand that they weren't people of his time allying themselves with him and his family simply because they needed to or saw an opportunity. For all intents and purposes, it was something that they were always going to do - or be. Konoha was their home and even thought this wasn't the Konoha that they were used to, Sakura can attest that the ideas are pretty close to the same.

Sakura could recall, ever since her childhood, whenever someone spoke fondly of the First Hokage, they would look up at his face carved into the mountain side and smile. They adored the First Hokage for all of the accomplishments and stories told that most weren't even alive for. Sakura used to always be in awe of the First and Second Hokages viewing them only as titans.

Even though now she understands that they aren't simply titans - but men, it doesn't really change her view on them. While she loves and adores them as friends and comrades, a part of her will always hold this strong, desperate and even border lining obsessive need to serve by their side and as part of their army. Sakura has great respect for the other villages and their founders, but has never once desired to leave Konoha for a different village. For a different ideal.

It was for the ideals that Konoha was built upon that people like Itachi Uchiha were born. People like Kakashi Hatake and Naruto Uzumaki. It was because of these ideals that someone like Obito Uchiha were born. And it was because of these ideals that Madara Uchiha had both a rise and fall and another rise again.

Sakura saw Madara Uchiha now in a light she never thought she would see him in.

Sakura didn't blame Madara. Not the Madara of her time, for what he had done. In some ways, what he wanted was no different than what any of the people mentioned before him wanted. It's just his execution was something that took her by surprise and maybe cleverly masked his true intention. For all of the bad and wrong things he's done in his life, when he died, Madara Uchiha was good.

And now Sakura knows, this man, this Madara, wasn't the man who did any of those things. This man hasn't done anything wrong and simply because they are in a different timeline, he may never.

The four men sit in silence for a moment, the strange Uchiha looking around uncomfortable, dark eyes darting to his clan leader and heir, trying to follow by their example. With them having no idea what to do or thing, he looks completely lost.

"I am no god," Hashirama finally says, after a long silence.

"I understand," Sakura says delicately. "But everyone in our village will see you as that. You have little to worry about other than everyone staring at you. All of you." Her green eyes scan the other three founders.

"This is a lot to absorb," Tsunade says. "We can understand if you need to take some time."

"No," Hashirama says, shaking his head. "I kind of knew that this was a strong possibility," he looks at Sakura. "I figured you have to be from the future."

Sakura's eyes widen. Tsunade leans on one hip and tilts her head letting out a soft, "Huh," before Sakura steps closer.

"What do you mean?"

"We all talked about it," Madara says slowly. "At first we were suspicious of you, Tobirama and myself, but as we got to know you... things changed. Your vagueness, the way you held yourself and presented yourself. The way you interacted with people and expected it in return. After thinking about it, we began to spitball the idea that you were from the future."

"We didn't know for certain, even after having seen your memories, although that did strongly reinforce our belief," Tobirama continues for the black haired man, just as slowly, " but we didn't really know until we met with the Shikamaru-boy."

"Shikamaru?" Sakura asks, surprised. "Was it what he said about the Uchiha and Senju?"

"No," Tobirama shakes his head. "It's the fact that he's a Nara."

"I... don't understand," Sakura admits.

Hashirama smiles. "The Nara clan has been a long-time ally of the Senju. Shikiyo is actually a close personal friend of mine," Hashirama admits. "And when he was that age, he looked just like Shikamaru. Same drawl, same body language, everything."

"A Nara is a difficult person to miss," Madara says. "And it's not even about their personal appearance but a look in their eye." He brings his pointer finger up to his one revealed eye. "Any Uchiha who has ever been on the battlefield can spot a Nara a mile away."

Sakura frowns. "Kami damned it, Shikamaru. You were the one who screwed the pooch - twice."

Tsunade waves her hand around. "It doesn't matter. Thankfully this makes it a bit easier for us to move on from. There is much that needs to be discussed between us. Even if we can no longer find a home here, I refuse to leave you to face a monster that you won't see coming. We did, and we lost almost everything," Tsunade says, dropping her hands to her sides.

Sakura's shoulders droop a bit, worried about her master's words. "It's all gone, isn't it?" She asks softly.

Tsunade's sad brown eyes turn to Sakura and she nods. "Yes. Our history, our jutsu, our homes, all of that is gone. Even a lot of people that we loved. They are gone too, but not everyone is gone. We will just have to find a way to survive with the hand that we've been dealt. We don't have any other choice, Sakura."

Sakura bows her head, both out of respect for her master's words, and worry that all present would be able to see the tears building up in her eyes. It was one thing to worry that everything was gone. It was another thing entirely to hear it from someone she trusted more than most others confirming it.

But then, there is a loud dog's bark.

Sakura blinks her tears away and looks up in time to see Akamaru barrel past the strange Uchiha and head straight for Tsunade. The woman steps aside as the dog lets out this heartbreaking series of whimpering and whining as none other than Kiba Inuzuka drops down from one of the trees behind her and spreads his arms open wide for the large bear-like animal to basically jump into his arms.

Akamaru's whimpers and whines come in between his frantic licks on Kiba's face. His large paws rest on Kiba's shoulders and his tail is frantically waving back and forth.

Kiba laughs, turning his head from side to side to stop Akamaru from sticking his tongue into his throat. "Stop, boy, stop. I know! I know! I've missed you too, buddy!" He runs his hands lovingly through Akamaru's fur a few times before pushing the dog down and kneeling down Akamaru's level. "It's okay, Akamaru. I know, I missed you, boy. It's okay!" Even though he's trying to sooth the excited dog, it also sounded like he was talking to himself. "Good boy. Good boy."

Sakura turns to look at Hashirama, Tobirama, Izuna and Madara. "That's Kiba Inuzuka," Sakura says softly. "He's Akamaru's Inuzuka Master and Partner."

"Ah," Hashirama says. "This is nice." He smiles, looking over at the happy duo.

Sakura's smile at the reunion fades when she realizes that yet again, another person has managed to sneak up on her.

"How..?" She raises an eyebrow. Then it came to her. They were masking their chakra. That was something that she hadn't needed to do since she first showed up. She hasn't been put into such a situation yet. She can't believe she hadn't realized it sooner.

And then she realized why. No one else here, in this timeline other than her and her friends, knew how to do that. Hiding one's chakra wasn't something that was created until just before the beginning of the First Great Ninja War. And it was created by none other than the illustrious Tobirama Senju. No wonder he looks so frazzled by all of these people sneaking up on him. They were using a technique that he hadn't even invented yet - if he's going to technically invent it in this timeline - and he didn't know how to counter it. Or to even know to look.

Sakura watches as one by one, her friends drop down from the trees around them, all of their chakra perfectly masked. Shikamaru, Tenten, Hinata, Shino, Choji, Lee, and Ino, next to Kiba and Akamaru. Sakura's eyes lock onto her best friend and couldn't help herself. She rushes over to the slightly younger girl and throws her arms around her.

Ino smiles, hugging her tightly. "Damn Forehead, if I knew you were going to be this lovey dovey, I'd go away more often."

"Shut the hell up," Sakura mumbles before releasing her friend.

Ino laughs, looking down at the shorter pink haired girl with a single visible blue eye, grinning.

Sakura turns back toward Tsunade. "What are we going to do now, my lady?"

"For now," Tsunade says, crossing her arms over her chest again, "we are going to back off. We will give the Founders some time to discuss this situation. We will come back in a few days to hear what they have to say."

"Wait," Hashirama says, stepping closer, waving off the sharp look Tobirama sent his way. "Please, stay here for the night."

Tsunade bows her head. "Thank you, my lord, but I must attend to my people. I can't simply leave them to fend for themselves. They need stability right now."

"I understand," Hashirama says quickly, walking over to her only to stop right in front of her. Tsunade had to strain her neck to look right up into his large dark brown eyes. "I meant all of you. I understand that there is going to be many of you, but please, this forest is large and plentiful. Plus, it'll do us some good to desensitize ourselves to your collective numbers by exposing ourselves to it."

"You haven't..." Tsunade starts slowly.

Hashirama glances over his shoulder at his brother and the two brothers of the opposite family. "I think I speak for the majority when I say that we would like for you guys to feel welcome."

Tobirama didn't appear like that was what he wanted, and for the most part Madara was visibly very leery, but Izuna appeared to agree with Hashirama. He nodded slowly to the brown haired man's words. He leans in close to Hashirama and turns his head so the bottom of his chin was pointing toward them so that no one would have been able to read his lips and he whispers something into Madara's ear that seems to calm him down a bit.

Tsunade stares at Hashirama for a long, baited moment, not seeming to believe his words. "Are you certain that's a good idea?"

Hashirama nods. "Yes. I don't see why it wouldn't."

Tsunade nods very slowly. "Very well, my lord. We will set up camp outside of the village boundaries, but we will stay out of the village for the time being." Her eyes drag over to Madara, Izuna, and Tobirama. "Is that going to be a problem? I would like to know now before I waste too much time."

"If Hashirama says so, then leave it," Madara says. Izuna nods and Tobirama turns away, red eyes scanning the trees, looking for any more hidden shinobi.

As much as Sakura respected Hashirama and knew that he was basically their leader, a part of her was curious as to why Madara didn't fight Hashirama on this. It wasn't until Hashirama turned around, stepping over a root in the ground while placing his hand on the bark of the tree to keep himself balanced, that Sakura immediately knew why.

On the battlefield, Hashirama Senju was a god.

In a forest, he was something else entirely.

 

Sakura was hit with many forms of shock, both in the situation around her and at herself. As Tsunade and her friends were going to depart, a part of Sakura wondered where she was going to go. Was she going to go back to her house that night, or with her friends. It was absolutely absurd to think. Of course the only place she was going to go, was with her friends to help make up the camp for the night and see what else she can do to help.

Sakura was shocked, and happy, to see more people alive. Some were suffering from Uchiha Fever, the same thing that she had been sick with when she first showed up, like Shikamaru. Others had already moved past it. And she was happy to see the face - er, sort of - of her teacher, Kakashi Hatake.

"Sensei!" Sakura exclaims once her eyes lock onto the scarecrow's familiar gray hair.

Kakashi turns toward her, headband pushed up to his forehead to reveal two black eyes, one of which branded with a scar. "Sakura!" His eyes light up and he smiles when she stops in front of him. "I'm glad to see that you are okay."

"Same," Sakura says. "I haven't been able to see Sasuke or Naruto. Where are they?" She spares a moment to look around, before Kakashi's hand on her shoulder brings her back to his face.

"They aren't here yet, I don't think," Kakashi says. "More and more people are showing up each and every day. Sasuke and Naruto were the last to pass through the rift they created. But they could show up at any time. So be patient."

Sakura nods quickly, feeling silly for getting her hopes up so suddenly. She's been waiting a long time to be able to see everyone again. She's got to see most of her friends, she can wait a little bit longer to see her two remaining teammates.

So, Sakura bids Kakashi farewell as he turns to a few jounin that approached to speak with him, to assist Tsunade, Shizune, Ino and Hinata in moving patients closer to the village. It had taken Sakura and her friends about two hours to make it to where their current camp was located. Tsunade pulled Kakashi aside, spoke with him for a few moments before getting things moving.

It would be a slow and tedious process, Sakura was sure, and she knew that they wouldn't actually be sleeping outside of the village for the next day or two, but it was kind of exciting moving the forces closer. Each preparation made and step taken was just drawing her and her fellow shinobi closer and closer to her their new home. Where their old home would be. Eighty years into this not future.

This was a bit confusing.

There wasn't a lot of time to sit around and chat with one another, but everyone was working together and even though the couple of thousand that was there in the camp, hidden by very powerful seals conjured by what remained of the sealing team, was still nothing compared to what Sakura was used to. But she couldn't dwell on that now. A lot of other things needed her attention. She would be able to grieve and process later.

For now, they had to get moving.

There was an unbelievable feeling of belonging that she couldn't deny while working with other fellow Leaf ninja. They knew her name and when their eyes locked with hers no matter how brief there was familiarity and recognition. She could remembering caring for almost every person she came across since coming to the camp because they were all people she crossed paths with at some point in her career.

Even though this wasn't Konoha. Even though they were out in a forest, the ground still moist from the rain just days before, in the middle of nowhere, Sakura couldn't help but feel like she finally found the place where she belonged. She was surrounded by familiar faces and people that loved her almost as much as she loved them.

Sakura was finally home.

 

It took five days before their entire camp was moved next to the fledgling village. Which was honestly quite impressive for how many of them there were. But it was also proof that not nearly enough of them had made it out of Konoha alive. If Sakura understands it correctly, Shikamaru estimates that with them, currently, is about two thousand shinobi and a little over a hundred civilians that happened to be close by when Naruto and Sasuke opened the "rift" as they have begun referring to the portal to this timeline.

Two thousand shinobi was nothing compared to what she was used to. That number, while large for the people of this time, was surprisingly low for what Sakura was used to in their village. It was staggering to think that they had lost so many people. Sakura wasn't sure of the final numbers when the war ended, but having only two thousand remain just didn't seem right.

The only saving grace, for now, was that Shikamaru assured her that not everyone was there yet. There was still some people missing that they knew for certain went through. Naruto and Sasuke being some of those people.

Thinking about Naruto and Sasuke made Sakura remember some other people she couldn't believe that she had forgotten.

"Ino," Sakura calls tot he blond haired young woman who was walking the perimeter of their camp, that's on the side of the village. Even though it was their home, no on was taking any chances until they all knew where they all stood. The tall Yamanaka slows down for Sakura to catch up before continuing, eyeing a group of Senju men that watch them pass slowly.

"Yep?" she says.

"Have you heard anything about my mom and dad?" Sakura asks. "I haven't seen them yet. Do you think they will be coming through soon?"

Ino freezes, pulling her eyes away from the Senju to look at Sakura, her single visible blue eye wide. She opens her mouth, about to say something, before she shuts it again, looking as if she didn't know what to say.

"What's wrong?" Sakura asks, knowing that look on her best friend's face. Sakura knew Ino, better than she knew herself sometimes. The way Ino's nose and mouth scrunched up, Sakura knew that something was wrong. "Ino," Sakura says slowly, dread filling her gut. "What's going on?"

Ino turns to Sakura completely, putting her hands on Sakura's shoulders and stepping closer, her back toward the Senju men, as if to try and give the two young ladies a semblance of privacy. Her single blue eye is narrowed and sad.

"Sakura," Ino says softly. "I... don't know how to say this..."

Sakura's heart rate picks up. "What? Ino, what? Just tell me."

Ino lowers her hands to Sakura's gripping them tightly. "I... Sakura, your parents... they... they're gone."

"They didn't make it through?" Sakura whispers, horrified. No, that can't be right. Naruto would have definitely saved her parents. What was Ino saying?

Ino shakes her head slowly, deep creases forming between her eyes and she's unable to even look at the pink haired girl. "No, Sakura. I saw it. Your mom and dad... those people... they..." she sucks in a deep breath before letting out slowly. "I saw them cut your parents down, Sakura. I am so, so sorry."

For a strange, unexplainable moment, Sakura felt numb. The dread in her belly and the pain in her chest vanished and she couldn't feel a thing. And then, just moments after she realized it, Sakura felt everything.


	23. Why

It was like a knife slicing long ways across Sakura's gut and then pouring magma into her gut. The sting in her eyes was suddenly but wasn't a drawn out feeling as she just started crying without any further preamble.

No one ever wants to receive horrible news like that at any point in their life and while Sakura has been surrounded by death since the moment she became a ninja and moreso since she became Tsunade's apprentice. It was a way of life that existed long before she came into their world and will exist long after she leaves it, but she never could have prepared herself for this moment.

It all kind of hit her so suddenly that she didn't have time - or even ability - to be able to control herself as this horrible, pained wail escapes her and her knees lose all of their strength. Ino manages to catch her and cradles her close to her chest, rocking back and forth, rubbing Sakura's hair and back soothingly, trying to calm her down. Sakura couldn't even really tell what was going on. All she could do was feel this horrible pain in her chest and stomach, so profoundly gripping at her heart and soul that she didn't know how to reign in her emotions. All she could do is let it out.

She knew Ino was there. Ino was her best friend. She knew that Ino was there at her side for her in her moment of need, just as she was with Ino. It wasn't something that was needed to be said. It was just something that they felt. Sakura and Ino loved one another as much as two people could without being romantically involved. It wasn't about what other people thought of them or what social norms were. Sakura and Ino were best friends since children and even though they had a bit of a rocky road to this moment, the friendship still lived on in the moments that maybe they didn't think that it would.

So even though she knew that Ino was there, she couldn't really feel or hear her. She felt her presence on her body, but her mind couldn't really process anything outside of the pain in her soul. She is having so many different feelings all converging on her at once that she just didn't have the focus or the will power to be able to properly sort out, the pain is just too prominent.

She's not sure how long she was sitting there in the dirt, crying her eyes out, probably snotting all over Ino and while she's sure Ino doesn't really mind, and won't think of her any differently, but she just can't seem to rein herself in. It was like all of the pain and confusion with losing her home and her normal along with her family it's like everything is falling apart around her even thought she also knows that she still has things going for her they just feel like they are nothing - minute, even - in comparison to everything that she is losing.

She's not alone. Logically, her brain knows that, but in this moment it felt like no one else in the world was with her. She still had her friends, but there was something about family that was irreplaceable.

Sakura didn't have any family other than her parents. She didn't have any siblings and neither did her parents, and her grandparents on both sides didn't - or at lest none that were living any more while Sakura was live - and now that they are all gone, Sakura is the only one left. She can't even say that she knows how Sasuke feels in the aspect of being the only living member of a family because while he may have felt like that, he technically wasn't. He did still have Itachi, and unbeknownst to him, Obito as well. And while they may have never counted as family again if they ever had children, the blood connection would always link them together.

Sakura doesn't get that. If she does have family out there, she has no idea how to find them, and if they are being technical again, they wouldn't even be Sakura's. They may be related, but there is absolutely no tangible connection. When her parents died, all familial connection vanished with them.

Someone grabs onto Sakura's arms, pulling her into a hard chest - definitely a man's - but she couldn't see through her blurry vision who it was, but the moment she smelled his faint shampoo, she knew immediately who it was.

It was Kakashi.

It was a little strange. Kakashi has never really been the comforting type of person, especially in Sakura's life. He's had his moments, but he always kind of the logical one. His words ma be comforting to a degree, but he's never been really physically comforting, though. He would put a hand on the shoulder or offer a knowing look, but little else.

But at this moment, he has Sakura pressed tight up against his chest. He wasn't really hugging her, not really, but one of his hands was cupping the back of her head in a very close imitation of a hug.

It wasn't a very Kakashi like action. He wasn't a very physically comforting type of person but in those moments, Sakura desperately needed it. There was something about Kakashi that was so fundamentally different than Ino. Ino was strong and sure and Sakura trusted her without a sliver of doubt, but Kakashi was her sensei. He was one of the few men left in her life that she looked up to as a young girl walking into the strange world of shinobi.

Even though Kakashi wasn't the most powerful person in the world, he was unstoppable to her. She knew that he wasn't unbeatable, but in that moment, he was like the rock that she needed. It's at a moment like this that, while Sakura's not sure how or what was said, but she knows that from the last moment that she clearly remembers to this moment now, something happened between the two of them. They had to of bonded somehow and forged a stronger bond than perhaps she was prepared for.

It was this new bond that she could feel in her heart, but not her mind, that allowed her to finally start to relax. Plus, Kakashi has always been so strong, so sure, that it seemed like nothing ever really fazed him and against a constant onslaught of pain and uncertainty, it's his assuredness and strength that manages to offer her a bit of comfort. With Ino, she could feel the mutual pain, it wasn't long before she lost her own father - and maybe her mother too, she wasn't sure if Ino's mother was even alive still - but Kakashi was calm.

He was upset for her, but he was also very relaxed, using his calming presence to bring her panic level down. At first, the confusion as to why Kakashi was the one, out of everyone in the world to hug her, but the confusion was enough to distract her from her pain long enough for her to start to finally calm down and regain her sense of self.

Sakura doesn't wrap her arms around Kakashi, but she does lean in closely to him, trying to absorb his strength into herself. She felt silly for breaking down like that out in the open, but at the same time, she couldn't bring herself to be mad about it. If anyone judged her for crying over her parents, she was probably going to beat the ever loving hell out of them. The feelings, especially now, is still very raw. She's not sure how she's really going to handle this, but for now she's calming down. The pain is still very fresh and she's sure she won't be able to get over it quickly, but right now she just needs some time to calm down.

Now that she's stopped sobbing and reduced to the occasional dry sob and shuttering breath, Kakashi pulls back and places both of his hands on her shoulders and looks down into her eyes.

There is a moment of pause, as they just stare at each other, Sakura blinks slowly, tears still leaking out of her eyes every couple of seconds. Kakashi takes a slow, deep breath, giving her shoulders a little squeeze before saying, tenderly, "I'm sorry, Sakura."

Sakura believed him. His words were like a knife in her heart, but it also offers her a bit of solace. She certainly didn't feel any better, but she did feel lighter getting some of that inner turmoil out, even if it's only a little bit. Sakura's not sure how she's going to work her way out of this, but that she's really going to need time to do so.

"I... need some time alone," Sakura croaks, but doesn't pull away from him just yet.

"Take all the time you need," Kakashi says gently. His words were kind, but it's his eyes that really convey what she needed. At that moment, all she needed to hear more than anything - and even though she isn't technically hearing it, she's happy that there is the confirmation in his eyes - these people aren't going to get away with what they've done.

Kakashi's eyes promised it: they - being Sakura and her shinobi family - are going to kill them all.

Sakura's not a vengeful person, but at that moment, that's all she wants. She wants them all to pay for killing her family, friends, villagers and destroying her home. She wants them all to pay.

 

Sakura sits at the river, watching the water flowing peacefully. Even though it felt like Sakura's entire world is crumbling down yet the water is still flowing like it always has. Life was still going on even if it felt like her life has come to a standstill. Sakura has been out here for hours since learning about the death of her parents. So many thoughts and feelings kept going through her mind, she didn't know how to sort any of it out.

In so many ways, Sakura knew that she was in shock by her parents death, but she felt like she was also still functioning. She was thinking and feeling - kami was she feeling - at such an alarming rate that she isn't able to properly cycle through and analyze properly before she's hit with the next emotion. There is no rhyme or reason for what she feels and when - and it's a wide range of emotions - and she's not sure how to control it or calm it until she no longer has any more emotions to feel, then she will be able to start healing.

She just... has to make it to that point.

Night draws closer, step by step, creeping over the horizon. Sakura knew that she should be returning to camp soon but she couldn't bring herself to do that. She couldn't go back there just yet feeling like she was. She couldn't face the wounded and broken expressions of the people around her. She couldn't stare into their eyes and keep herself in check.

She needed time to mourn, to think, to understand, and then to move on. She knows that it's important to be around people she loves and people who love her, but right now she just needed time.

Night comes, and still Sakura stays. She pulls her legs up to her chest and throughout the night, she sits there and stares at the rushing water, at one point hoping that all of her problems be washed away downstream, never to be found again. But she knew that wasn't an option. She just had to go through the flurry of emotions and begin to heal. She can feel it, a powerful swirling maelstrom of anger beating around on the inside of her chest, and she knows that it's going to unleash itself somehow, but she's not sure she wants to be around anyone when she does.

Sakura knows that she's strong. She knows that her physical strength is impressive, but she's also aware that she can be very destructive. Ever since Sakura was taught this amazing power, she was taught that while it's fine for her to lose her temper while in a battle scenario, if she lost it around comrades, then she is sure to do things that she will forever regret.

Her life is dedicated to caring for others, protecting them and healing them when they are hurt, but if she's the one who's hurting the ones she's suppose to be protecting..? No. That simply cannot be. She won't be the one to hurt anyone.

She's not, though, out here. Out here, when that moment of rage and pain comes, she will be able to expel it all from her body before finally returning home to her friends and fam-

Sakura closes her eyes. She brings her hands up to her face, rubbing at it roughly before running them through her short pink hair. This overwhelming urge to rip her own hair out of her skull tugs at her chest, but she fights it. As much as she wants to rip out every single strand of hair until there is nothing left, she knew she was just substituting the pain in her chest for another, and after that is over, the pain in her chest will remain. It was a temporary solution to a problem that she is simply going to have to toughen through until the end.

So, instead of pulling her hair out, like she wants to, she just furiously scratches at the back of her scalp for a few moments, no doubt messing up her hair, before letting her arms drop to the dirt next to her and her head to fall onto her knees. Her neck, back and the backs of her legs pull a bit in strain at the strange way she is sitting. She takes a moment to adjust herself a bit to make it a little bit more comfortable.

"Sakura?"

Sakura jerks upward, back going ramrod straight, before turning to look over her shoulder to see Tobirama standing behind her a few feet. One of his hands is resting against the trunk of the nearby tree. He was half hidden behind it, most would probably assume that he was sneaking up on her for one reason or another, but Sakura got the impression that he walked up behind her, she didn't notice, so he was about to leave again, before suddenly calling out to her.

She can kind of tell by the conflicted look on his face.

"Did those Senju men tell you what happened?" Sakura asks, figuring he was already there, she might as well know the reason why. Besides, maybe she needed to get out of her own head for a minute or two and regroup.

Tobirama takes her question as an invitation, stepping out a bit from around the tree and more into the moonlight. "To a degree," he admits. "They saw you and your friend walking, then you collapsed, crying. They reported it to us a few hours ago. Hashirama wanted to rush over to see what had happened. We managed to convince him that whatever it was, you would need a bit of time."

"We?" Sakura asks, already knowing the answer, but she just... needed to keep the conversation going.

Tobirama nods slowly. "Yes. Izuna, Madara and myself."

"I didn't mean to make a scene," Sakura says softly. "I just... wasn't prepared for the news that I got. I probably should have been. I should have expected the worse, seeing as my home was attacked and basically conquered, but, I suppose I'm still ignorant to the way of the shinobi." She laughs. It's bitter and cutting and sounds horrible to her ears. She stops laughing.

Tobirama takes another step closer. "May I ask what the news was?"

Sakura didn't want to admit it. She didn't want to put it into words. She thought that maybe if she didn't really talk about it, in a way, it wasn't real. Even though the pain was there, somehow it was all just a fluke. Perhaps another part of it stems from the fact that she really didn't want to talk about it. She didn't want to make a pity party with other people, she wanted to be alone. She wasn't the first person to lose someone she loved, and she wouldn't be the last. She should just come to terms with her loss and move on. Not quickly, because then people would worry more. But at an acceptable rate, and then it will all be over.

Besides, why would she tell Tobirama anything? Sure, he was her friend, but they had only known each other for a few months. There had to be a slew of things currently going on that probably needed his attention a hell of a lot more than she did, and even if there wasn't, he didn't owe her anything. Sure, he could say that he owed her for saving his brother's life, but honestly, she'd have done that without him asking, and it wasn't done entirely selflessly anyhow.

She wanted Konoha and in order to get it, she needed Hashirama.

No, that's down playing their friendship, because like Tobirama, Hashirama was her friend too. She loved and admired them both, but at the end of the day, she still owed them a hell of a lot more than they owed her.

Er, well, she did when she thought that they were the founders of her village. Now that she knows that they are just men that look like the founders from a different timeline altogether, she's not sure what to think.

Just adding onto the pile. That was another case in and of itself that she has yet to crack open and examine thoroughly. And as much as she wanted to in this moment, to be able to focus on anything else in the entire world other than herself and her grief, she really couldn't. Not on that, because it would then just come full circle.

And she'd have made it nowhere. She probably would have uprooted more questions than answers, anyhow.

But, at the same time, she wanted to talk about it. For hours she's been stewing in her pain and it was starting to get too much. She wanted to go back home and talk to her friends - talk to Ino, whom she's missed so much but hasn't had the time to actually sit down and talk to about, well, anything with because of the move - but there is still so much going on. All of her friends have to focus on their own problems and the problems of their people.

They aren't spending a lot of time on their own pain, they don't have the time. Yet, holding true to her nature, she's making a big deal about her own pain and suffering as if theirs meant nothing to her.

Kami damned it, Sakura. Why? Why is it always you? Why are you always the one to drag everyone down? Why are you always the one to make every little thing about yourself? Why? Why? Why?

Sakura's finger interlace between the smooth pink locks, pulling at them a bit at the roots, letting out a low groan of anger. Shit, she's probably making this entire thing worse. How is she suppose to process all of this? Coming out here, she felt that being alone was what was best, but now that feels selfish. Wanting to go back and talk to Ino about it seems both presumptuous because of her own loss and selfish. And now, wanting to talk to Tobirama about it seems like a stupid idea because, if she can't tell Ino, why the hell should she be talking to Tobirama about it?

Ino's her best friend! Ino's from her time, knows her parents, probably misses them too! Ino understands what she's going through and can probably shine more light on the situation! Why is this so difficult? Why is she so conflicted? Should she say something about it, or just let it pass? Should she be as selfish as she wants to be, or finally take the high road?

Why does it feel like every decision she's made since she woke up here in this timeline has somehow been wrong? What in the world is she doing? How can she somehow magically get on the right path? Do the right things?

"Sakura..." Tobirama says softly.

"My parents," Sakura blurts out, without thinking about it. "My parents didn't make it out of Konoha alive. Those bastards killed them." She could feel fresh tears building up in her eyes again. She turns forward again, neck hurting from looking over her shoulder for so long. She furiously wipes the tears away. "Damn it!"

There is a moment of silence where Sakura was almost certain that Tobirama had taken this time to turn and high tail it back to his village, not ready to deal with her and her seemingly endless bounds of drama. But he didn't. He settled down next to her, slowly, as if worried he was approaching a wild animal that could turn psychotic at any given moment. She doesn't blame him. She must seem grossly unstable.

"Tell me about them," Tobirama says calmly.

Sakura shakes her head. "I don't want to." No, she did. And she didn't. She just couldn't seem to make up her mind.

"It will make you feel better," Tobirama insists smoothly. Sakura opens her mouth, about to protest when he continues, "Trust me, I didn't think it would help me either. I didn't want to acknowledge the things that hurt me because I feared it made me weaker. But Hashirama beat a bit of... sensitivity into me. Not so much for others," he admits with a touch of humor that makes Sakura smile for a split second before it falls again and he continues, "but for myself. I don't like... admitting to my faults or to things that bother me, whereas Hashirama is like an open book for all to read from. I bottle things up, he does not."

Sakura turns to look at the white haired man. His face, hair and eyes are lit up by the moonlight. His long lashes casting thin shadows across his cheeks.

"What are you referring to?" Sakura asks softly.

"A few things," Tobirama admits, "but perhaps those are a story for a different time. I... will tell you about my most painful experience but you mustn't utter word to any other." He turns to look at her with the most intense red eyes she's seen form him yet. He's bearing his heart to her and it's more trust in another person than he's obviously comfortable with, but he's doing it anyway. For her.

"I won't," Sakura promises, nodding her head. "I swear."

Tobirama hesitates for a few moments, looking her eyes, trying to see if she's telling the truth. It's obvious that whatever he's about to speak about is a very touchy subject to him and while he trusts her, he's still worried about exposing his heart to her. Perhaps he is a lot more delicate than he likes to admit.

Once he seems sure that she's going to keep her promise - a flash of reconsideration flickers across his face, but he steals himself - he finally says, "I was thirteen years old when my mother died."

He doesn't go on, but the weight of his words settles on Sakura's shoulders like a ton of bricks. Thirteen years old Sakura couldn't believe she lost her mother at seventeen. At thirteen? That was beyond her comprehension.

"It was just Hashirama and I in the room with her the night before," Tobirama says slowly. He looks about to go on, but hesitates before saying, "my mother has always been a very frail woman. She had to live a very simple life simply because she wasn't strong enough for much more. But she enjoyed taking care of my brothers and I and after losing my two younger brothers, she grew sickly and weak for the longest time."

Tobirama looks away from her, toward the rushing water, a crease forming between his eyes. "She had been so sick for so long that my brother and I were told to stay away from her, but that night, she called for us to come sleep with her, something we hadn't done in a long time. I remember laying at her side, my head on one of her shoulders, Hashirama's on the other," Tobirama says softly, eyes gaining this far away look.

"She would rub our backs softly and tell us about how much she loved us. At one point she started crying and admitted to missing my two little brothers and wishing that she hadn't brought such beautiful babies into the world to simply die. She felt even greater pain for bringing Hashirama and I into the world because we lived. We lived through our brothers dying, our clansmen and friends. And soon her. She feared that soon there would be nothing left for us to lose. Except for ourselves, and that would be the ultimate punishment."

Tobirama rubs at his forehead, his jaw working, straining to reign in the emotions that where desperately bubbling to the surface. When he speaks again, his voice is stoic, dead, as if that was the only way for him to tell his story.

"She then told us about how much she loved us and what is was that she loved. The joy we brought her and others. The way that we remained strong even after we lost our baby brothers. How one day, if this war didn't consume us, she was certain we were going to change the world for the better," he pauses a moment. He closes his eyes, as if seeing something behind his eye lids that he hadn't seen in a long time. A frown tugs at the corners of his mouth, but after a split second, it relaxes again.

"She told us that no matter what, we needed to always stick together and to our beliefs. That in a world that we would forge, while better than the one we were born into, no one could ever be trusted as much as each other. We were born in the same place, by the same people, for the same reason and loved completely for the things that made us different. If we had nothing else in the world, we had each other." Tobirama turns to look at her, red eyes soft and sad. "I believe her," he admits, "even to this day. If I have no one else in the entire world, I will always have Hashirama."

He looks away again. "My mother held us in her arms until we fell asleep. The first night we spent with our mom in a long time, was the last night of her life. She died before sunrise that very next day. With Hashirama and I still sleeping beside her. By the time we woke up, she was already getting cold."

Sakura could feel the silent tears streaming down her face. She didn't say anything or reach out to touch him because it didn't feel like that was what he needed - or wanted.

"I didn't want to think about her," Tobirama continues, voice flat again to fend off the emotions. "I didn't want to mourn her because I didn't want to think of it as she was gone. I just wanted to try and focus on anything, and everything, else. While he had time to grieve and begin to heal, I was festering in my pain and agony in a way I don't think I could have ever escaped on my own. And while that worked for a few days, Hashirama wouldn't let me live with that pain coiled up inside me any longer. He told me the same thing I'm going to tell you."

It's at that moment that he turns to her and waits for her to turn to him before speaking, "The pain you feel now is nothing compared to the pain you will feel once you finally start to heal. Once the pain in your chest and the reason to not get up in the morning begin to fade, then you will reach the toughest milestone of all in the grieving process; coming to the terms with your acceptance."

"What does that mean?" Sakura asks, finally speaking. Her voice is deep and wavering.

"Acceptance is a natural thing that comes with grief, but what they never say is how horrible you feel when coming to accept your acceptance," Tobirama says slowly. "When that morning finally comes that you realize that you are ready to move on, you will have the largest hurdle in front of you. And that is coming to terms with the fact that while you will love and miss them forever, the part of your heart that at one point they occupied, the person you love is gone and now they won't forever be in your forethoughts. You will hate yourself and feel that you do them disservice every time your thoughts drift from them. You will feel anger, pain, and guilt over this, and when that happens, no matter what I'm doing. No matter where I am. No matter how we feel toward each other at that moment," Tobirama says seriously, looking deep into her eyes. "You find me. I will save you."

Sakura didn't know what to say. This was what Hashirama-sama said to Tobirama-sama? It was so profound, so deep that it was a little hard to imagine that it came from such a goofy, happy young man. Especially a young one whom just lost his mother. He was truly something.

"So, I pass on these words to you, my friend," Tobirama says softly, nodding a bit toward her. "When that moment comes for you, and it will, even if you don't think so. Just know that I will be here for you."

Sakura stares up at him in wonder, not really knowing what to say. She opens her mouth, then closes it, only to open it again, realize she's still at a loss for words before she closes it again. She takes a moment to furiously wipe away her tears and collect her thoughts before looking back over at him and asking, quietly, "Why are you telling me this?" Why would you share something so personal? Why would you make yourself so vulnerable? Why would you put yourself out there? Why? Why? Why?

Tobirama stares down at her for a moment, as if not knowing how to answer that. After a bit of mental debate, he admits, softly, as if worried someone will overhear him, "I'm afraid I am not courageous enough, or drunk enough, to be able to give you the answer that you seek. One day, perhaps, but not today."


End file.
